JP7685908B2 - Notification management device, notification management method, and program - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a notification management device, a notification management method, and a program.

Along with the development of communication network technologies such as computers and the Internet, technologies for notifying information using messaging services have been developed. Messaging services are mechanisms for sending and receiving messages using functions such as Rich Communication Services (RCS), Short Message Service (SMS), and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS).
RCS is a standard for implementing instant messengers at the terminal level for terminal devices such as mobile phones and smartphones, and uses telephone numbers as identification information for users of communication destinations. In addition, in RCS, the upper limit on the number of characters that can be sent is set to be larger than that of conventional SMS and MMS.

To send a message using RCS, the terminal device must be equipped with application software compatible with RCS (hereinafter, RCS application). However, not all terminal devices have the RCS application installed.
Therefore, in order to confirm whether the RCS application is installed, a confirmation signal is sent from the system of a telecommunications carrier (hereinafter referred to as a communications carrier or a carrier) to the terminal device, thereby performing a confirmation process. If an RCS application is installed in a terminal device, and a confirmation signal is sent to the terminal device from the carrier corresponding to the telephone number of the terminal device and a response signal is obtained from the terminal device, it is determined that the RCS application is installed in the terminal device.

Now, there are multiple carriers for terminal devices such as mobile phones and smartphones. Therefore, in order to check whether an RCS app is installed on a terminal device, it is necessary to send a confirmation signal from the communication system of the carrier with which the terminal device has a contract.

However, in recent years, mobile phone number portability (hereinafter referred to as MNP) has come into use, and carriers may be changed without changing mobile phone numbers. When a carrier is changed by MNP, it is difficult for a third party other than the current carrier to know which is the current carrier. Therefore, when a third party sends a message to a user's terminal device using RCS, the third party may have each carrier send the above-mentioned confirmation signal to the terminal device, identify the carrier corresponding to the telephone number of the terminal device, and check whether an RCS app is installed in the destination terminal device.
As an example of a system for checking whether a telephone number has been transferred, there is a system described in Patent Document 1. In this system, a call is made to the telephone number of the mobile phone to be investigated to request a connection, and when the reply information to the request is a redirection disconnection message, a technique is disclosed for determining the carrier to which the transfer has been made by MNP based on the reply information.

JP 2016-225716 A

However, depending on the number of terminal devices to be checked and the type of carrier, the load of the verification process increases. For example, if there are N types of carriers (N is a natural number equal to or greater than 2) and M lines for the telephone number to be checked, and verification process is performed for each of the M lines from each carrier, a total of N x M verification processes will be performed. As a result, the load on the verification process increases as the number of lines to be checked increases. Also, the load on the carrier's system when requesting verification process increases as the number of lines for the telephone number to be checked increases.

The present invention was made in consideration of these circumstances, and its purpose is to provide a notification management device, a notification management method, and a program that can reduce the load on confirmation processing.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, one aspect of the present invention is a notification management device having an assigned carrier acquisition unit that acquires assigned carrier information in which a telephone number is associated with carrier identification information that identifies a telecommunications carrier; a first determination unit that, when carrier identification information corresponding to a telephone number to be confirmed is obtained from the assigned carrier information, determines whether or not a notification can be sent to a user terminal with the telephone number to be confirmed as the destination based on a response to a confirmation signal sent from a processing device of a telecommunications carrier corresponding to the obtained carrier identification information to the telephone number to be confirmed; and a second determination unit that determines whether or not a notification can be sent to a user terminal with the telephone number to be confirmed as the destination based on a response to a confirmation signal sent from a processing device of a telecommunications carrier other than the telecommunications carrier indicated by the associated carrier identification information in the assigned carrier information for a telephone number determined by the first determination unit to be notifiable.

In one aspect of the present invention, an assigned carrier acquisition unit acquires assigned carrier information in which a telephone number is associated with carrier identification information that identifies a telecommunications carrier, and a first determination unit, when carrier identification information corresponding to a telephone number to be confirmed is obtained from the assigned carrier information, determines whether or not a notification can be sent to a user terminal with the telephone number to be confirmed as the destination based on a response to a confirmation signal sent from a processing device of a telecommunications carrier corresponding to the obtained carrier identification information to the telephone number to be confirmed, and a second determination unit, for a telephone number determined by the first determination unit to be notifiable, determines whether or not a notification can be sent to a user terminal with the telephone number to be confirmed as the destination based on a response to a confirmation signal sent from a processing device of a telecommunications carrier other than the telecommunications carrier indicated by the associated carrier identification information in the assigned carrier information.

Another aspect of the present invention is a program that causes a computer to execute the following: acquire assigned carrier information in which a telephone number is associated with carrier identification information that identifies a telecommunications carrier; when carrier identification information corresponding to a telephone number to be confirmed is obtained from the assigned carrier information, determine whether or not a notification to a user terminal is possible with the telephone number to be confirmed as the destination based on a response to a confirmation signal sent from a processing device of a telecommunications carrier corresponding to the obtained carrier identification information to the telephone number to be confirmed; and for a telephone number that is determined to be not notifiable in the determination result, determine whether or not a notification to a user terminal is possible with the telephone number to be confirmed as the destination based on a response to a confirmation request sent from a processing device of a telecommunications carrier other than the telecommunications carrier indicated by the associated carrier identification information in the assigned carrier information.

As described above, this invention can reduce the load on the verification process.

1 is a system configuration diagram showing an example of the configuration of a notification system 1. FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of a DB server 40. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of allocated carrier information 420. 1 is a functional block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a notification management device 10. FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of notification information 120. 1 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the notification management device 10. FIG. 13 is a conceptual diagram illustrating the relationship between the order of confirmation processing and the number of telephone numbers to be confirmed. FIG. 13 is a diagram for explaining a case in which each carrier is made to perform a confirmation process in accordance with a predetermined order in the second process.

The following describes an embodiment of the invention with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing an example of the configuration of a notification system 1 according to an embodiment.
The notification system 1 includes, for example, a notification management device 10, a corporate server 20, a plurality of user terminals 30 (user terminals 30-1, 30-2, ..., 30-N), a DB server 40, and a plurality of carrier communication systems 50 (carrier communication system 50a, carrier communication system 50b, carrier communication system 50c). When there are a plurality of carriers, a carrier communication system 50 is provided for each carrier. Here, as an example, a case where there are three carriers will be taken as an example, and a case where there are three carrier communication systems 50, namely, carrier communication system 50a of carrier A, carrier communication system 50b of carrier B, and carrier communication system 50c of carrier C will be described. However, the number of carriers may be two, or four or more.
The notification management device 10, the enterprise server 20, the user terminal 30, the DB server 40, and the carrier communication system 50 are communicatively connected via a communication network NW. In this example, the notification system 1 includes one notification management device 10, but the notification system 1 may include multiple notification management devices 10.
Furthermore, the notification system 1 may be configured to include a plurality of corporate servers 20 and a plurality of DB servers 40 .

The notification system 1 can notify the user terminal 30 of a message in response to a request from the enterprise server 20 using the carrier communication system 50. The message includes the content to be notified to the user terminal 30. The content to be notified includes, for example, data such as text, illustrations and other figures, still images and moving images including photographs, and sound. When sending a message, the enterprise server 20 can send a notification request to the notification management device 10, so that the message can be sent from the notification management device 10 to the user terminal 30 via the carrier communication system 50.

The notification management device 10 receives a notification request from the corporate server 20. The notification request here is a signal requesting a notification to be sent to the customer's user terminal 30. The notification request includes, for example, information about the requester (company) requesting the notification, information about the notification destination (user) to which the notification is to be sent, and information indicating the content of the notification. The configuration of the notification management device 10 will be described in detail later.

The corporate server 20 is a server device that uses the notification system 1 to send various notifications to the user terminal 30 of the customer (user). The corporate server 20 is used by various companies such as banks and insurance companies. The corporate server 20 and the notification management device 10 may be separate devices or may be a single device.
The enterprise server 20 has a communication function for communicating with the notification management device 10 via the communication network NW and transmitting a notification request to the notification management device 10. The enterprise server 20 also has a control function for controlling each unit within the enterprise server 20.

The content of the message sent from the corporate server 20 to the user terminal 30 may be arbitrary. For example, the message may notify the user that an insurance policy they have signed up for is about to expire, notify the billing amount for a product or service, or notify the user of a survey to investigate customer satisfaction.

The user terminal 30 may be any one of a smartphone, tablet terminal, PC (Personal Computer), mobile phone, game console, touchpad, e-book reader, or wearable terminal, etc., to which a mobile phone number is assigned. In addition, if an application program that provides messaging services (RCS, SMS, MMS, etc.) is installed on the user terminal 30, messages can be exchanged by executing this application program. The user terminal 30 may also have a web browsing function, in which case the user terminal 30 can refer to external sites via the communication network NW.

The user terminal 30 communicates with other devices via the communication network NW. The user terminal 30 has a communication function for receiving notifications using a messaging service from the notification management device 10 via the carrier communication system 50 or the like, a display panel for displaying the contents of the notifications received from the notification management device 10, and a sound emission function (speaker, etc.). The user terminal 30 also has a control function for overall control of the user terminal 30, for example, a function for displaying the contents of the notification from the notification management device 10 on the display panel, outputting a sound using the sound emission function so that the user is aware that a notification has been received, and displaying on the display panel (for example, displaying a banner image, etc.). The control function can be realized, for example, by a CPU (Central Processing Unit) executing a program.

Here, the communication network NW includes the facilities of each telecommunications carrier (carrier) that serves as an Internet provider. An example of a carrier's facility is the carrier communication system 50. The carrier communication system 50 is a server device operated by a telecommunications carrier (telecommunications carrier or carrier), which receives messages from the notification management device 10 and distributes them to the user terminal 30 that is the notification destination. The carrier communication system 50 may also include a switchboard of the telecommunications carrier.

The DB server 40 is a server device that stores information (allocated carrier information 420, described later) that is referenced when the notification management device 10 issues a notification.
FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the DB server 40. As shown in FIG.
The DB server 40 includes, for example, a communication unit 41, a storage unit 42, and a control unit 43. The communication unit 41 communicates with the notification management device 10, external devices, etc. via the communication network NW. The storage unit 42 stores allocated carrier information 420.

3 is a diagram showing an example of the allocated carrier information 420. The allocated carrier information 420 is information in which a mobile phone number is associated with carrier identification information for identifying a communication carrier. The carrier identification information in the allocated carrier information 420 can be used as carrier identification information for identifying an allocated carrier (allocated carrier) for determining which carrier communication system 50 is to be used for transmission in the first process (the stage of transmitting a confirmation signal by the first confirmation request unit 132) when performing a confirmation process by transmitting a confirmation signal from the carrier communication system 50 to the user terminal 30.
The assigned carrier may be a carrier that is determined in advance for each telephone number to be confirmed. Here, the assigned carrier may be determined based on the initial designated carrier. The initial designated carrier is a telecommunications carrier that is first contracted when a mobile phone is to function as a communication device. More specifically, the initial designated carrier is a carrier that is designated by a public institution (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications) as a telecommunications carrier that is first contracted by a mobile phone of the telephone number for each telephone number. The relationship between a telephone number and a designated carrier is, for example, published on the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' website, a page showing the telecommunications number designation status ([Searched on May 7, 2021], Internet <URL: http://www.soumu.go.jp/main_sosiki/joho_tsusin/top/tel_number/number_shitei.html>). In the table published on the page (hereinafter referred to as telecommunications number designation status data), the first six digits of a telephone number are associated with a carrier corresponding to the telephone number. In other words, by referring to the first six digits of a telephone number, the initial designated carrier of the telephone number can be identified. The allocated carrier information 420 may be generated based on this telecommunication number assignment status data.

The telephone number stored as the assigned carrier information 420 may be all the digits of the telephone number, or may be a part of the telephone number. When a part of the telephone number is used, it may be a part of the telephone number, such as any digits (e.g., 6 digits) from the beginning of the telephone number. FIG. 3 shows an example in which the first 6 digits are used as the telephone number. When the assigned carrier in the assigned carrier information 420 is based on the telecommunications number designation status data provided by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the initial designated carrier corresponding to the telephone number in this table is stored.
In the example of Fig. 3, for a telephone number whose first six digits are "090XXX", the assigned carrier is carrier A, for a telephone number whose first six digits are "090YYX", the assigned carrier is carrier B, and for a telephone number whose first six digits are "090XZZ", the assigned carrier is carrier C. In this way, the assigned carrier information may correspond to different telecommunications carriers depending on the telephone number. In addition, here, a case will be described in which three carriers, carrier A, carrier B, and carrier C, are used as the assigned carrier, but the number of carriers may be two or four or more.

Returning to FIG. 2, the control unit 43 performs overall control of the DB server 40. The control unit 43 periodically accesses the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' website and determines whether the telecommunications number designation status data has been updated. If the telecommunications number designation status data has been updated, the control unit 43 downloads the data. The control unit 43 stores the downloaded data in the memory unit 42 as assigned carrier information 420.

The downloading of the allocated carrier information 420 by the control unit 43 may be performed manually or automatically.
In the case of manual downloading, the DB server 40 performs downloading in response to an operation input from an input device provided in the DB server 40. The input device may be a keyboard, a mouse, a touch panel, or the like. The operation input here is, for example, an operation content such as an operator accessing a specific website or downloading data on the website. The input device outputs the acquired operation content to the control unit 43. The control unit 43 executes a process of accessing a specific website or downloading data on the website based on the operation content input from the input device, and stores the process in the memory unit 42 as assigned carrier information 420.
In the automatic case, the control unit 43 executes a pre-stored script to access a specified homepage, determine whether the data on the homepage has been updated, and if the data has been updated, downloads the data and stores it in the memory unit 42 as assigned carrier information 420.

In addition, in this embodiment, the control unit 43 of the DB server 40 downloads the telecommunications number designation status data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications website, but this is not limited to this. The DB server 40 may acquire data downloaded by another server device (or PC) from the other server device (or PC) and register (store) the acquired data in the memory unit 42.

When the carrier communication system 50 receives a request to send a message from the enterprise server 20 or the notification management device 10, the carrier communication system 50 sends a message to the telephone number set as the destination of the message. When the sent message is successfully received by the user terminal 30, the carrier communication system 50 sends a result indicating that the message was successfully sent to the telephone number set as the destination to the enterprise server 20 or the notification management device 10 that sent the request. On the other hand, when the message is not successfully received by the user terminal 30, the carrier communication system 50 sends a result indicating that the message was not successfully sent to the telephone number set as the destination to the enterprise server 20 or the notification management device 10 that sent the request. The function of the carrier communication system 50 may differ depending on the carrier that operates it. For example, after sending a message to the telephone number set as the destination, the carrier communication system 50 may pool (accumulate) the message for a certain period of time, and if there is no response indicating that the message has been received from the destination user terminal 30 during that time, the carrier communication system 50 may send a result indicating that the message was not successfully received by the terminal device to the enterprise server 20 or the notification management device 10 that sent the request. In this case, it may take some time for the company server 20 or the notification management device 10 to receive a result indicating whether or not the message was sent normally.
The carrier communication system 50 can deliver a message to the destination terminal device if the destination user terminal 30 has a contract with the carrier of its own carrier communication system 50, but if the destination user terminal 30 has a contract with a carrier different from the carrier of its own carrier communication system 50, the message will not be received properly by the destination terminal device.
In this embodiment, when performing the confirmation process, the notification management device 10 makes a transmission request to the carrier communication system 50 in response to a request from the corporate server 20, and the transmission result is transmitted from the carrier communication system 50 to the notification management device 10.

The communication network NW is a communication network that includes, for example, some or all of the following: the Internet, a WAN (Wide Area Network), a LAN (Local Area Network), a provider device, a wireless base station, a dedicated line, etc.

In the present embodiment, notification is a process of sending or receiving a message to the user terminal 30 using a messaging service. The messaging service is a mechanism for sending and receiving messages using functions such as RCS, SMS, and MMS. The notification is performed, for example, using a chat function of the messaging service.
This notification is performed by the carrier communication system 50. When the carrier communication system 50 receives a notification request from the sender of the notification, it sends the notification content to the telephone number set as the destination. When sending the notification, if the carrier communication system 50 is the carrier communication system 50 of the current carrier of the telephone number set as the destination, it is possible to have the user terminal 30 of the telephone number set as the destination receive the message. On the other hand, if the carrier communication system 50 is the carrier communication system 50 of a carrier other than the current carrier of the telephone number set as the destination, it is not possible to have the user terminal 30 of the telephone number set as the destination receive the message.
For example, if the user has not changed the carrier for the telephone number of the user terminal 30, the notification can be made by the carrier communication system 50 of the initially designated carrier to cause the user terminal 30 to receive the message. If the user has changed the carrier for the telephone number of the user terminal 30 (if MNP has been performed), the notification can be made by the carrier communication system 50 of the latest carrier after the change to cause the user terminal 30 to receive the message.

4 is a functional block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the notification management device 10. The notification management device 10 includes, for example, a communication unit 11, a storage unit 12, and a control unit 13. The communication unit 11 communicates with the company server 20, the user terminal 30, the DB server 40, and the carrier communication system 50 via the communication network NW.
The storage unit 12 stores programs executed for the functional units of the control unit 13 to perform their functions, and various data used when the programs are executed. For example, notification information 120 is stored in the storage unit 12. The storage unit 12 may be a hard disk drive (HDD), a flash memory, a random access memory (RAM), or the like.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of the notification information 120. As shown in FIG.
The notification information 120 is information used to provide a notification in response to a notification request notified from the enterprise server 20. The notification information 120 is created, for example, for each notification request. The notification information 120 includes items such as a message ID, a request source, a notification destination, and notification content.

The message ID is identification information that uniquely identifies the message to be notified.
The requester is information about the requester. For example, the requester may include an ID, a name, and an account. The ID is identification information that uniquely identifies the requester, such as a company. The account is a messaging service account used for notifications from the company, etc. corresponding to the ID.
The notification destination is information related to the notification destination, and includes, for example, a user ID and a telephone number. The user ID is identification information that uniquely identifies the user of the notification destination. The telephone number is the telephone number of the user terminal 30 of the user corresponding to the user ID.
The notification content is information about the content to be notified to the user, and includes items such as the notification date and time, the notification title, and the notification text. The notification date and time is the date and time when the message requested by the requester is scheduled to be notified. The notification title is the title of the message to be notified. The notification text indicates the text to be notified. The notification content may include not only the notification text, but also data such as images and sounds to be notified.

In this example diagram, the name of the company requesting message ID "M0001" is "Company X", and Company X's messaging service account is "xxxxxx". The user ID of the notification recipient is "U0001", and the user's telephone number is "090XXX...".

Returning to FIG. 4, the control unit 13 includes an assigned carrier acquisition unit 130, a first determination unit 131, a first confirmation request unit 132, a second determination unit 133, and a second confirmation request unit 134.
The allocated carrier acquisition unit 130 acquires allocated carrier information in which a telephone number and carrier identification information for identifying a telecommunications carrier are associated with each other. For example, when acquiring allocated carrier information, the allocated carrier acquisition unit 130 acquires allocated carrier information 420 from the storage unit 42 of the DB server 40. When acquiring allocated carrier information, the allocated carrier acquisition unit 130 may acquire telecommunication number designation status data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications website, or may acquire allocated carrier information stored in another storage device or server. Also, when the allocated carrier information is stored in the storage unit 12 of the notification management device 10, the allocated carrier information may be acquired from the storage unit 12.

When carrier identification information corresponding to the telephone number to be confirmed is obtained from the allocated carrier information, the first determination unit 131 determines whether or not a notification to the user terminal can be sent to the telephone number to be confirmed, based on a response to a confirmation signal sent from a processing device of the communication carrier according to the obtained carrier identification information and addressed to the telephone number to be confirmed. Here, the processing device of the communication carrier is, for example, the carrier communication system 50.
When the first judgment unit 131 receives a result (response) from the telecommunications carrier's processing device indicating that the notification has been completed successfully, it judges that the telecommunications carrier can notify the user terminal to which the notification is to be sent, and when the first judgment unit 131 receives a result (response) from the telecommunications carrier's processing device indicating that the notification has not been completed successfully, it judges that the telecommunications carrier cannot notify the user terminal to which the notification is to be sent.

Here, the telephone number to be confirmed is, for example, a telephone number set as a notification destination, which is included in notification information in response to a message transmission request from the enterprise server 20. That is, in response to receiving a message transmission request from the enterprise server 20, the first determination unit 131 causes the first confirmation request unit 132 to transmit a confirmation signal from the carrier's processing device to the telephone number set as the message notification destination, before transmitting the message itself, and makes a determination based on the response.
By transmitting a message transmission request together with the notification information to the notification management device 10, the corporate server 20 can have the notification management device 10 perform a confirmation process and then transmit the message to the user terminal 30, even if the corporate server 20 itself does not know which carrier corresponds to the telephone number of the user terminal 30. Furthermore, when the corporate server 20 cannot transmit a message to the user terminal 30 from any of the carrier communication systems 50, it can receive a result indicating that the message cannot be transmitted from the notification management device 10. This allows the message transmission person of the corporate server 20 to consider whether to transmit the message using a different route (for example, whether to transmit a message using SMS) rather than transmitting the message using RCS.

When the first confirmation request unit 132 performs a judgment process using the first judgment unit 131 for each of a plurality of telephone numbers to be confirmed, it identifies carrier identification information for each telephone number to be confirmed by referring to the assigned carrier information, and sends a confirmation request to the processing device of the telecommunications carrier corresponding to each identified carrier identification information as to whether or not notification is possible, thereby causing the processing device of each telecommunications carrier to perform the confirmation process in parallel.
Since the first confirmation request unit 132 causes the carrier communication systems 50 of the respective telecommunications carriers to perform confirmation processing in parallel, it is possible to cause the processing devices of the respective telecommunications carriers to perform confirmation processing in parallel as to whether or not notification is possible when making a judgment by the first judgment unit 131. This makes it possible to proceed with the confirmation processing without waiting for the result of the confirmation processing in the carrier communication systems 50 of the other carriers, thereby preventing the time required for the confirmation processing from being prolonged.

The confirmation request sent by the first confirmation request unit 132 may be a signal requesting that a confirmation signal be sent from the carrier communication system 50 to the user terminal 30. The confirmation request may be, for example, a confirmation signal. More specifically, the first confirmation request unit 132 generates a confirmation signal to notify the user terminal 30 based on a transmission request from the enterprise server 20, and causes the confirmation process to be performed by sending the confirmation signal to the communication carrier's processing device. When causing the communication carrier's processing device to perform the confirmation process, the first confirmation request unit 132 may use a message that does not include the contents of the message (for example, does not include text data, etc.) as the confirmation signal.

The second determination unit 133 determines, for a telephone number determined by the first determination unit 131 to be incapable of notification, whether or not notification to a user terminal is possible with the telephone number to be confirmed as the destination, based on the response to a confirmation signal sent from a processing device of a telecommunications carrier other than the telecommunications carrier indicated by the carrier identification information associated with the allocated carrier information.
The second determination unit 133 receives a result (response) indicating the result of the confirmation process from the processing device of the communication service provider, and determines whether or not notification is possible based on this result.
When the second determination unit 133 receives a result (response) from the telecommunications carrier's processing device indicating that the notification has been completed successfully, it determines that the telecommunications carrier can notify the user terminal to which the notification is to be sent, and when the second determination unit 133 receives a result (response) from the telecommunications carrier's processing device indicating that the notification has not been completed successfully, it determines that the telecommunications carrier cannot notify the user terminal to which the notification is to be sent.

When the second confirmation request unit 134 performs a judgment process by the second judgment unit 133, it identifies, for each of the multiple telephone numbers that the first judgment unit 131 has judged to be notifiable, a telecommunications carrier other than the telecommunications carrier associated with the assigned carrier information, and sends a confirmation request to the processing device of each identified telecommunications carrier to ask whether or not the telephone numbers are notifiable, thereby causing the processing device of each telecommunications carrier to perform confirmation processing in parallel.
Since the second confirmation request unit 134 causes the carrier communication systems 50 of the respective telecommunications carriers to perform confirmation processing in parallel, it is possible to cause the processing devices of the respective telecommunications carriers to perform confirmation processing in parallel as to whether or not notification is possible when making a judgment by the second judgment unit 133. This makes it possible to proceed with the confirmation processing without waiting for the result of the confirmation processing in the carrier communication systems 50 of the other carriers, thereby preventing the time required for the confirmation processing from being prolonged.

The second confirmation request unit 134 generates a confirmation signal for a telephone number determined by the first determination unit 131 as not notifiable, and transmits the confirmation signal to the communication carrier's processing device to cause the device to perform confirmation processing. When the second confirmation request unit 134 causes the communication device of the communication carrier to perform confirmation processing, the second confirmation request unit 134 may use a message that does not include any message content (e.g., does not include text data, etc.) as the confirmation signal.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the notification management device 10. As shown in FIG.
The communication unit 11 of the notification management device 10 receives notification information and a request to send a message from the enterprise server 20 (step S101). Upon receiving the notification information and the request to send a message from the enterprise server 20, the assigned carrier acquisition unit 130 acquires assigned carrier information 420 from the DB server 40 (step S102).
The first confirmation request unit 132 extracts the telephone number set as the notification destination included in the notification information requested to be sent from the enterprise server 20, sets the extracted telephone number as the telephone number to be confirmed, and identifies the assigned carrier corresponding to the telephone number to be confirmed by referring to the assigned carrier information (step S103). For example, the first confirmation request unit 132 determines whether the telephone number to be confirmed is registered as the assigned carrier information 420, and if it is registered, identifies the assigned carrier by identifying the carrier associated with the telephone number registered as the assigned carrier information 420. Here, if the telephone number registered as the assigned carrier information 420 is a part of the telephone number to be confirmed (e.g., the first six digits), identifies the matching number by referring to the digits to be determined (e.g., the first six digits) of the telephone number to be confirmed, and identifies the assigned carrier by identifying the carrier corresponding to the identified number.
Here, the transmission request received from the enterprise server 20 may be a request to transmit notification information to one user terminal 30, or may be a request to transmit notification information to each of multiple user terminals 30. In the case of a transmission request to multiple user terminals 30, the first confirmation request unit 132 identifies an assigned carrier for each telephone number set as a notification destination.

When the assigned carrier is identified, the first confirmation request unit 132 requests the carrier communication system 50 of the identified assigned carrier to send a confirmation signal to the telephone number used to identify the assigned carrier (step S104). The confirmation signal to be sent here may be a message that does not include text data or the like in the message body.
The first confirmation request unit 132 transmits a confirmation signal to the carrier communication system 50 of the assigned carrier corresponding to each telephone number to be confirmed. When there are multiple telephone numbers to be confirmed and each telephone number is contracted with a different carrier, multiple types of assigned carriers such as carrier A, carrier B, and carrier C may be obtained. In such a case, the first confirmation request unit 132 requests the carrier communication system 50 of carrier A to transmit a confirmation signal with the telephone number whose assigned carrier is carrier A as the notification destination. Similarly, the first confirmation request unit 132 requests the carrier communication system 50 of carrier B to transmit a confirmation signal with the telephone number whose assigned carrier is carrier B as the notification destination, and requests the carrier communication system 50 of carrier C to transmit a confirmation signal with the telephone number whose assigned carrier is carrier C as the notification destination.

The carrier communication system 50 transmits a confirmation signal to the telephone number set as the destination based on the transmission request received from the notification management device 10, and determines whether or not a response signal has been received from the destination user terminal 30. The carrier communication system 50 transmits to the notification management device 10 a transmission result indicating whether or not a response signal has been received for each of the destination telephone numbers. Depending on the specifications of the carrier communication system 50, the result of a confirmation process performed up until a certain period of time ago may be retained for a certain period of time, and when a confirmation request is received from the notification management device 10, the confirmation result may be transmitted to the notification management device 10 based on the retained data.
Here, the transmission results are transmitted from the carrier communication systems 50 of carrier A, carrier B, and carrier C to the notification management device 10 .

The first determination unit 131 of the notification management device 10 receives the transmission results from the carrier communication systems 50 (step S105). Here, the first determination unit 131 receives the transmission results from the carrier communication systems 50 of the three carriers.
Based on the transmission result, the first determination unit 131 determines whether or not a notification to the user terminal can be sent to the telephone number to be confirmed (step S106). When there are multiple telephone numbers to be confirmed, the first determination unit 131 performs a determination process for each telephone number.
If it is possible to notify the user terminal of the telephone number to be confirmed based on the result of the judgment by the first judgment unit 131 (step S106-YES), the control unit 13 transmits a message to the telephone number determined to be possible (step S107). Then, the control unit 13 ends the process for the telephone number to which the message has been sent, and if there is a telephone number to which the message has not been sent, the control unit 13 performs the process for that telephone number from step S108.
If the control unit 13 cannot send a notification to the user terminal with the telephone number being confirmed as the destination (step S106-NO), the control unit 13 does not send a message with the telephone number as the destination.

The second confirmation request unit 134 identifies a telecommunications carrier other than the telecommunications carrier associated with each of the multiple telephone numbers determined by the first judgment unit 131 to be notifiable in the assigned carrier information, and requests the carrier communication system 50 of each identified telecommunications carrier to send a confirmation signal addressed to the telephone number to be confirmed (step S108).
In response to this transmission request, a confirmation signal is transmitted from the carrier communication system 50 of each carrier to which the transmission request has been made, and the result is transmitted to the notification management device 10 .
The second determination unit 133 determines whether or not a notification to the user terminal can be sent to the telephone number to be confirmed based on the transmission results obtained from each carrier communication system 50 (step S109). When there are multiple telephone numbers to be confirmed, the second determination unit 133 performs a determination process for each telephone number.

If it is possible to notify the user terminal of the telephone number to be confirmed based on the result of the judgment by the second judgment unit 133 (step S109-YES), the control unit 13 transmits a message to the telephone number determined to be possible (step S110).Then, the control unit 13 ends the process for the telephone number to which the message was sent.
If the control unit 13 is unable to notify the user terminal with the telephone number to be confirmed as the destination (step S109-NO), the control unit 13 does not send a message with the telephone number as the destination. Then, the control unit 13 performs processing according to the inability to notify a message for the telephone number for which the control unit 13 was unable to notify the user terminal with the telephone number to be confirmed as the destination in step S109 (step S111). For example, if it is predetermined that a message is to be sent using SMS for the telephone number for which a message could not be sent, the control unit 13 sends a message to the telephone number for which a message could not be sent using SMS. Alternatively, the control unit 13 may send information informing the company server 20 of the telephone number for which a message could not be sent, or may output an instruction to print the message on a print medium and deliver it.
In this flowchart, a case where there are three carriers has been described; however, even if there are four or more carriers, for the telephone number to be confirmed, confirmation processing can be performed on one carrier using allocated carrier information 420 in the first process, and for telephone numbers that could not be notified, confirmation processing can be performed on the remaining carriers in the second process.
Also, when there are four or more carriers, the first process may be performed using the allocated carrier information 420 to perform a confirmation process for one carrier, the second process may be performed for some of the remaining carriers, and the third process may be performed to perform confirmation processes for the carriers that have not been confirmed for telephone numbers that could not be notified in the first and second processes. In other words, when there are a large number of carriers, the number of stages of confirmation processes may be increased according to the number of carriers.

Next, the reduction in the load of the confirmation process by the above-mentioned configuration will be described.
FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram for explaining the relationship between the order of confirmation processing and the number of telephone numbers to be confirmed.
When the notification information and the message transmission request are received from the enterprise server 20, the assigned carrier acquisition unit 130 acquires the assigned carrier information 420. Here, a case where the number of lines of the telephone number for which the transmission request is made as the message transmission target is 300 will be described as an example.
The first confirmation request unit 132 identifies the assigned carrier corresponding to the telephone number to be confirmed by referring to the assigned carrier information, and assigns each telephone number according to the assigned carrier (reference number 200). Here, if the assigned carriers are three types, carrier A, carrier B, and carrier C, and the assigned carrier information 420 assigns these three carriers equally to the telephone numbers for 300 lines, when the carriers are assigned based on the assigned carrier information 420, 100 lines (reference number 211) are assigned to carrier A, 100 lines (reference number 221) are assigned to carrier B, and 100 lines (reference number 231) are assigned to carrier C.

The first confirmation request unit 132 requests the carrier A's carrier communication system 50 to transmit a confirmation signal with each telephone number as the notification destination for the 100 lines allocated to the carrier A. Then, when the result of the notification is received from the carrier A's carrier communication system 50, the first determination unit 131 performs a determination process based on the received result. Here, as an example, it is assumed that, of the 100 lines that are the subject of confirmation in the carrier A, 20 lines are determined to be notifiable in the carrier A (reference numeral 212), and 80 lines are determined to be notifiable (reference numeral 213). The 20 lines determined to be notifiable correspond to the user terminals 30 in which the carrier A currently has a contract for the telephone number and the RCS application is installed in the user terminals 30. For the 20 lines determined to be notifiable in the carrier A, a message is transmitted from the carrier A's carrier communication system 50 (reference numeral 214), and is normally received by the destination user terminals 30.
The 80 lines determined to be unnoticeable by carrier A correspond to user terminals 30 for which the carrier currently under contract for the telephone number is not carrier A, or for which the RCS application is not installed on the user terminal 30.

Similarly, the first confirmation request unit 132 transmits a confirmation signal from the carrier communication system 50 of carrier B for the 100 lines allocated to carrier B, and receives the notification result. The first determination unit 131 performs a determination process based on the received result. Here, as with carrier A, it is assumed that of the 100 lines that were the subject of confirmation in carrier B, 20 lines are determined to be notifiable in carrier B (reference number 222), and 80 lines are determined to be notifiable (reference number 223). The 20 lines determined to be notifiable correspond to user terminals 30 for which carrier B is currently under contract for the telephone number, and in which the RCS application is installed. For these 20 lines, a message is transmitted from carrier communication system 50 of carrier B (reference number 224), and is normally received by the destination user terminal 30.

Similarly, the first confirmation request unit 132 transmits a confirmation signal from the carrier communication system 50 of carrier C for the 100 lines allocated to carrier C, and receives the notification result. The first determination unit 131 performs a determination process based on the received result. Here, as with carrier A, it is assumed that of the 100 lines that were the subject of confirmation in carrier C, 20 lines are determined to be notifiable in carrier C (reference number 232), and 80 lines are determined to be notifiable (reference number 233). The 20 lines determined to be notifiable correspond to user terminals 30 for which the carrier currently under contract for the telephone number is carrier C, and in which the RCS application is installed. For these 20 lines, a message is transmitted from the carrier communication system 50 of carrier C (reference number 234), and is normally received by the destination user terminal 30.

By carrying out the first process up to this point of carrier allocation and determining whether or not notification is possible, it is possible to confirm that notification is possible for 60 of the 300 lines (20 lines on carrier A, 20 lines on carrier B, and 20 lines on carrier C, for a total of 60 lines). Therefore, in the next second process, confirmation processing is carried out for the remaining 240 lines.

When the second process is started, the second confirmation request unit 134 causes the carrier communication systems 50 of carrier B and carrier C to transmit confirmation signals for the 80 lines determined as not notifiable by carrier A. Similarly, the second confirmation request unit 134 causes the carrier communication systems 50 of carrier A and carrier C to transmit confirmation signals for the 80 lines determined as not notifiable by carrier B, and causes the carrier communication systems 50 of carrier A and carrier B to transmit confirmation signals for the 80 lines determined as not notifiable by carrier C.
In this case, carrier A performs a confirmation process for a total of 160 lines, consisting of the 80 lines designated as non-notifiable by carrier B and the 80 lines designated as non-notifiable by carrier C (reference number 240). Similarly, carrier B performs a confirmation process for a total of 160 lines, consisting of the 80 lines designated as non-notifiable by carrier A and the 80 lines designated as non-notifiable by carrier C (reference number 250). Carrier C also performs a confirmation process for a total of 160 lines, consisting of the 80 lines designated as non-notifiable by carrier A and the 80 lines designated as non-notifiable by carrier B (reference number 260).

For the 160 lines allocated to carrier A, the second confirmation request unit 134 requests carrier A's carrier communication system 50 to send a confirmation signal with each telephone number as the notification destination. Similarly, for the 160 lines allocated to carrier B, the second confirmation request unit 134 requests carrier B's carrier communication system 50 to send a confirmation signal with each telephone number as the notification destination, and for the 160 lines allocated to carrier C, the second confirmation request unit 134 requests carrier C's carrier communication system 50 to send a confirmation signal with each telephone number as the notification destination.

When the second determination unit 133 receives the notification result from the carrier communication system 50 of carrier A, it performs a determination process based on the received result (reference symbol 241). Here, as an example, it is assumed that, of the 160 lines that were checked by carrier A, 10 lines are determined to be notifiable by carrier A (reference symbol 242), and 150 lines are determined to be notifiable (reference symbol 243). The 10 lines determined to be notifiable correspond to user terminals 30 in which the carrier currently contracted for the telephone number has been changed from carrier B or carrier C to carrier A by MNP, and an RCS application is installed in the user terminal 30. For the 10 lines determined to be notifiable by carrier A, a message is sent from carrier communication system 50 of carrier A (reference symbol 244), and is normally received by the destination user terminal 30.

The second determination unit 133 also receives the result of notification from the carrier communication system 50 of carrier B, and performs a determination process based on the received result (reference symbol 251). Here, as an example, it is assumed that, of the 160 lines that were the subject of confirmation in carrier B, 10 lines were determined to be notifiable in carrier B (reference symbol 252), and 150 lines were determined to be notifiable (reference symbol 253). The 10 lines determined to be notifiable correspond to user terminals 30 in which the carrier currently contracted for the telephone number has been changed from carrier A or carrier C to carrier B by MNP, and an RCS application has been installed in the user terminal 30. For the 10 lines determined to be notifiable in carrier B, a message is sent from the carrier communication system 50 of carrier B (reference symbol 254), and is normally received by the destination user terminal 30.

The second determination unit 133 also receives the result of notification from the carrier communication system 50 of carrier C, and performs a determination process based on the received result (reference symbol 261). Here, as an example, it is assumed that, of the 160 lines that were the subject of confirmation in carrier C, 10 lines are determined to be notifiable in carrier C (reference symbol 262), and 150 lines are determined to be notifiable (reference symbol 263). The 10 lines determined to be notifiable correspond to user terminals 30 in which the carrier currently contracted for the telephone number has been changed from carrier A or carrier B to carrier C by MNP, and an RCS application is installed in the user terminal 30. For the 10 lines determined to be notifiable in carrier C, a message is sent from the carrier communication system 50 of carrier C (reference symbol 264), and is normally received by the destination user terminal 30.

Here, it is possible that the 150 lines determined to be unnotifiable by carrier A, the 150 lines determined to be unnotifiable by carrier B, and the 150 lines determined to be unnotifiable by carrier C fall into any of the following categories.
(1) When the carrier currently under contract for the telephone number is not Carrier A, Carrier B, or Carrier C, (2) When the RCS application is not installed on the user terminal 30, (3) When a confirmation process is performed for one telephone number with two carriers in the second process, and one carrier determines that notification is possible and the other carrier determines that notification is not possible, For such telephone numbers, since it is not possible to notify messages using RCS, a process such as notifying messages using SMS (reference numeral 270) is performed. The number of lines for telephone numbers that notify messages using SMS is 210 lines out of the 300 lines, excluding the 60 lines determined to be notifiable in the first process and the 30 lines determined to be notifiable in the second process.

Here, for carrier A, confirmation processing is performed on 100 lines in the first process and on 160 lines in the second process, resulting in a total of 260 lines being confirmed. Similarly, for carrier B, confirmation processing is performed on 100 lines in the first process and on 160 lines in the second process, resulting in a total of 260 lines being confirmed. For carrier C, confirmation processing is performed on 100 lines in the first process and on 160 lines in the second process, resulting in a total of 260 lines being confirmed.
Conventionally, if there are 300 telephone numbers to be verified, verification processing is carried out for 300 lines for carrier A, 300 lines for carrier B, and 300 lines for carrier C.
Then, according to the above-described embodiment, the confirmation process for carrier A can be reduced from 300 lines to 260 lines. Similarly, the confirmation process for carrier B can be reduced from 300 lines to 260 lines, and the confirmation process for carrier C can be reduced from 300 lines to 260 lines.
Therefore, according to this embodiment, it is possible to reduce the load on the carrier communication system 50 when performing the confirmation process. Also, it is possible to perform the confirmation process efficiently.

In addition, in the past, the notification management device 10 would have to request the transmission of confirmation signals for a total of 900 lines, namely 300 lines for carrier A, 300 lines for carrier B, and 300 lines for carrier C. However, according to the above-described embodiment, it is only necessary to request the transmission of confirmation signals for a total of 780 lines, namely 300 lines in the first processing (100 lines in carrier A, 100 lines in carrier B, and 100 lines in carrier C, for a total of 300 lines) and 480 lines in the second processing (160 lines in carrier A, 160 lines in carrier B, and 160 lines in carrier C, for a total of 480 lines).
Therefore, the load on the notification management device 10 in response to a request to send a confirmation signal can also be reduced.

In the example of FIG. 7, the case where the allocation carrier information 420 is used to equally distribute the 300 lines of the telephone number among the three carriers is described, but the information may be set so that one of the carriers has a larger number of lines than the other.

In addition, according to the above-described embodiment, in the first process, confirmation processing is performed in parallel for each of the carrier communication systems 50 of the multiple assigned carriers obtained by the assigned carrier information 420, thereby reducing waste and enabling efficient confirmation processing.

In the above-described embodiment, in the first process, confirmation processing is performed for one phone number with only one carrier, and the second process is performed for phone numbers that cannot be notified in the confirmation process. In this first process, the second process may not be started until confirmation processing is completed for all carriers, and the second process may be executed for phone numbers for which the first process has been completed without waiting for the completion of confirmation processing for other carriers. This allows the confirmation process to be performed efficiently.

In the above-described embodiment, the confirmation process of each carrier can be performed in parallel in the second process without waiting for the confirmation process of the other carriers to be completed, thereby making it possible to perform the confirmation process efficiently. In this case, it is possible to prevent the time required for both the first process and the second process to be completed from being prolonged. Furthermore, the confirmation process of each carrier may be performed in sequence in the second process, such as by performing a confirmation process for a certain carrier in the second process, and then performing a confirmation process for the remaining carriers after the confirmation process of that carrier is completed, rather than performing the confirmation process for each carrier in parallel.
In this case, when the second confirmation request unit 134 performs the determination process by the second determination unit 133, the second confirmation request unit 134 transmits a confirmation request for each carrier as to whether or not notification is possible to the processing device of the relevant telecommunications carrier in a predetermined order. The predetermined order may be an arbitrarily determined order, or may be in order of the number of lines requiring confirmation process, or in order of the number of lines requiring confirmation process.

When the second confirmation request unit 134 sends a confirmation request to the second or subsequent carrier in the specified order, it sends a confirmation request for telephone numbers that the first determination unit 131 has determined not to be notifiable on a processing device of a telecommunications carrier other than the relevant telecommunications carrier, and that have not been determined to be notifiable by the previous telephone number in the specified order of the second processing.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining a case where each carrier is made to perform a confirmation process in a predetermined order in the second process.
In Fig. 8, the same reference numerals are used for the same parts as in Fig. 7. Also, the first process is the same as in Fig. 7, and therefore the description thereof will be omitted.

When the second determination unit 133 receives the result of the notification from the carrier communication system 50 of the carrier A, the second determination unit 133 performs a determination process based on the received result (reference numeral 241). In this example, the number of lines to be confirmed in the second process of the carrier A is 160 lines.
These 160 lines include the following lines (1) and (2).
(1) 80 lines that were deemed unnotifiable in the first process at carrier B. (2) 80 lines that were deemed unnotifiable in the first process at carrier C.

Here, it is assumed that 10 of the 160 lines to be confirmed are determined to be notifiable by carrier A (reference number 242), and the remaining 150 lines are determined to be not notifiable (reference number 245).
The 10 lines that can be notified include the following (3) and (4).
(3) Five of the 80 lines that were deemed unnotifiable in the first processing at carrier B. (4) Five of the 80 lines that were deemed unnotifiable in the first processing at carrier C. The 150 lines that were deemed unnotifiable include the following (5) and (6).
(5) 75 lines out of 80 lines that were determined to be unnotifiable in the first process by carrier B. (6) 75 lines out of 80 lines that were determined to be unnotifiable in the first process by carrier C.

Next, the second confirmation request unit 134 performs the second processing on the carrier B, which is second in the predetermined order, and transmits a confirmation request to the carrier B. Here, the line to be confirmed in the second processing of the carrier B is the 155 line.
These 155 lines include the following lines (7) and (8).
(7) 80 lines that were deemed unnotifiable in the first process of carrier A. (8) Of the 80 lines that were deemed unnotifiable in the first process of carrier C, 75 lines that were deemed unnotifiable in the second process of carrier A.

The number of lines to be checked in the second process of carrier B shown in FIG. 7 is 160 lines, but in this embodiment, this can be reduced to 155 lines. This is because the five lines that are notifiable in the second process of carrier A can be excluded from the check targets. This reduces the load of the check process in the second process of carrier B.

Next, it is assumed that, of the 155 lines to be confirmed, 10 lines are determined to be notifiable by carrier B (reference number 252), and the remaining 145 lines are determined to be not notifiable (reference number 256).
The 10 lines that can be notified include the following (9) and (10).
(9) Five of the 80 lines that were deemed unnotifiable in the first processing of carrier A. (10) Five of the 75 lines that were deemed unnotifiable in the second processing of carrier A out of the 80 lines that were deemed unnotifiable in the first processing of carrier C.

The 145 lines that are not eligible for notification include the following (11) and (12).
(11) 75 lines out of 80 lines that were determined to be unnotifiable in the first process by carrier A. (12) 70 lines out of 75 lines that were determined to be unnotifiable in the first process by carrier C and in the second process by carrier A.

Next, the second confirmation request unit 134 performs the second processing on the carrier C, which is the third in the predetermined order, and transmits a confirmation request to the carrier C. Here, the number of lines to be confirmed in the second processing of the carrier C is 150 lines.
These 150 lines include the following lines (13) and (14).
(13) Of the 80 lines that were deemed unnotifiable in the first process of carrier B, 75 lines were deemed unnotifiable in the second process of carrier A. (14) Of the 80 lines that were deemed unnotifiable in the first process of carrier A, 75 lines were deemed unnotifiable in the second process of carrier B.

Here, the number of lines to be confirmed in the second process of carrier C shown in FIG. 7 is 160 lines, but in this embodiment, this can be reduced to 150 lines. This is because the five lines that are notifiable in the second process of carrier A and the five lines that are notifiable in the second process of carrier B can be excluded from the confirmation targets. This makes it possible to reduce the load of the confirmation process in the second process of carrier C.

Next, it is assumed that, of the 150 lines to be confirmed, 10 lines are determined to be notifiable by carrier C (reference number 262), and the remaining 140 lines are determined to be not notifiable (reference number 266).
The 10 lines that can be notified include the following (15) and (16).
(15) Of the 80 lines that were determined to be unnotifiable in the first processing by carrier A, 5 lines were determined to be unnotifiable in the second processing by carrier B. (16) Of the 80 lines that were determined to be unnotifiable in the first processing by carrier B, 5 lines were determined to be unnotifiable in the second processing by carrier A.

The 140 lines that cannot be notified include (17) and (18) below.
(17) Of the 80 lines that were determined to be unnotifiable in the first processing by carrier A, 70 lines out of the 75 lines that were determined to be unnotifiable in the second processing by carrier B. (18) Of the 80 lines that were determined to be unnotifiable in the first processing by carrier B, 70 lines out of the 75 lines that were determined to be unnotifiable in the second processing by carrier A.

For telephone numbers that are determined to be non-notifiable by any carrier in the second process, it is not possible to send a message using RCS, so a process such as sending a message using SMS (symbol 270) is performed.
The number of targets to which messages are notified using SMS is the same, 210 lines, as in the embodiment shown in Figure 8 and the embodiment shown in Figure 7. However, in the embodiment shown in Figure 8, the load on the carrier that performs the confirmation process from the second onwards in the second process can be reduced.

In the above-described embodiment, the confirmation process may be performed each time a message transmission request is received from the corporate server 20. When a message is sent to the same phone number as the previous time, the result of the previous confirmation process may be used as is. However, there may be cases where an RCS application is newly installed in the user terminal 30, an RCS application is deleted from the user terminal 30, or the carrier of the user terminal 30 is changed due to MNP. In such cases, the result is not necessarily the same as the result of the previous confirmation process. Therefore, the confirmation process may be performed again depending on the timing of sending the message. For example, when a message is sent at predetermined intervals, the confirmation process may be performed each time a message is sent. Even when the confirmation process is performed each time a message is sent, according to the above-described embodiment, the confirmation process can be performed while reducing the burden on the carrier.

The notification management device 10 in the above-mentioned embodiment may be realized in whole or in part by a computer. In that case, a program for realizing this function may be recorded on a computer-readable recording medium, and the program recorded on the recording medium may be read into a computer system and executed to realize the function. Note that the term "computer system" here includes hardware such as an OS and peripheral devices. Furthermore, the term "computer-readable recording medium" refers to portable media such as flexible disks, optical magnetic disks, ROMs, and CD-ROMs, and storage devices such as hard disks built into a computer system. Furthermore, the term "computer-readable recording medium" may include a medium that dynamically holds a program for a short period of time, such as a communication line when transmitting a program via a network such as the Internet or a communication line such as a telephone line, and a medium that holds a program for a certain period of time, such as a volatile memory inside a computer system that is a server or client in such a case. Furthermore, the above-mentioned program may be a program for realizing part of the above-mentioned function, or may be a program that can realize the above-mentioned function in combination with a program already recorded in the computer system, or may be a program that is realized using a programmable logic device such as an FPGA.

The above describes an embodiment of the present invention in detail with reference to the drawings, but the specific configuration is not limited to this embodiment, and includes designs that do not deviate from the gist of the present invention.

1...notification system, 10...notification management device, 11, 41...communication unit, 12, 42...storage unit, 13, 43...control unit, 20...company server, 30, 30-1, 30-2...user terminal, 40...DB server, 50, 50a, 50b, 50c...carrier communication system, 120...notification information, 130...allocated carrier acquisition unit, 131...first determination unit, 132...first confirmation request unit, 133...second determination unit, 134...second confirmation request unit

Claims (6)

an assigned carrier acquisition unit that acquires assigned carrier information in which a telephone number is associated with carrier identification information that identifies a communication carrier;
a first determination unit that, when carrier identification information corresponding to the telephone number to be confirmed is obtained from the allocated carrier information, determines whether or not a notification to a user terminal can be sent to the telephone number to be confirmed based on a response to a confirmation signal transmitted from a processing device of a communication carrier corresponding to the obtained carrier identification information to the telephone number to be confirmed;
a second determination unit that determines whether or not a telephone number determined by the first determination unit to be notifiable can be notified to a user terminal, based on a response to a confirmation signal transmitted from a processing device of a communications carrier other than the communications carrier indicated by the carrier identification information associated with the allocated carrier information to the confirmation telephone number;
A notification management device having: The assigned carrier information is associated with a different communication carrier according to the telephone number,
The notification management device,
The notification management device of claim 1, further comprising a first confirmation request unit that, when performing a judgment process by the first judgment unit for each of a plurality of telephone numbers to be confirmed, identifies carrier identification information for each of the telephone numbers to be confirmed by referring to the assigned carrier information, and sends a confirmation request to each of the processing devices of the telecommunications carriers corresponding to each of the identified carrier identification information to determine whether or not the notification is possible, thereby causing the processing devices of each telecommunications carrier to perform the confirmation process in parallel. The notification management device of claim 1 or claim 2, further comprising a second confirmation request unit that, when performing a determination process by the second determination unit, identifies a telecommunications carrier other than the telecommunications carrier associated with the allocated carrier information for each of a plurality of telephone numbers determined by the first determination unit to be notifiable, and sends a confirmation request to the processing device of each identified telecommunications carrier as to whether or not the notification is possible, thereby causing the processing device of each telecommunications carrier to perform confirmation processing in parallel. When performing the determination process by the second determination unit, for each of the plurality of telephone numbers determined by the first determination unit to be notifiable, a communication carrier different from the communication carrier associated with the telephone number in the allocated carrier information is identified, and a confirmation request as to whether or not the notification is possible is transmitted to a processing device of the communication carrier for each of the identified communication carriers in a predetermined order;
The notification management device of claim 1 or claim 2, further comprising a second confirmation request unit that, when sending a confirmation request to a telecommunications carrier second or subsequent to the specified order, sends a confirmation request for telephone numbers that the first determination unit has determined to be not notifiable on a processing device of a telecommunications carrier other than the specified carrier, and that have not been determined to be notifiable up to the previous telephone number in the specified order. An assigned carrier acquisition unit acquires assigned carrier information in which the telephone number and carrier identification information for identifying a communication carrier are associated with each other,
When carrier identification information corresponding to the telephone number to be confirmed is obtained from the allocated carrier information, a first determination unit determines whether or not a notification to the user terminal can be sent to the telephone number to be confirmed based on a response to a confirmation signal transmitted from a processing device of a communication carrier corresponding to the obtained carrier identification information to the telephone number to be confirmed;
A notification management method in which a second judgment unit judges whether or not a notification to a user terminal can be made to the telephone number to be confirmed, based on a response to a confirmation signal sent from a processing device of a telecommunications carrier other than the telecommunications carrier indicated by the carrier identification information associated with the assigned carrier information, for a telephone number that the first judgment unit judges not to be notifiable. Acquire assigned carrier information in which the telephone number is associated with carrier identification information for identifying a communication carrier;
When carrier identification information corresponding to the telephone number to be confirmed is obtained from the allocated carrier information, a determination is made as to whether or not a notification to the user terminal is possible with the telephone number to be confirmed as the destination, based on a response to a confirmation signal transmitted from a processing device of a communication carrier corresponding to the obtained carrier identification information to the telephone number to be confirmed;
A program that causes a computer to execute the following: For a telephone number that is determined to be incapable of notification in the determination result, based on a response to a confirmation signal sent from a processing device of a telecommunications carrier other than the telecommunications carrier indicated by the carrier identification information associated with the assigned carrier information, determine whether or not notification to a user terminal is possible with the telephone number to be confirmed as the destination.

Images