A customer of a long distance telephone service provider may be charged for long distance service based on the features of each long distance call such as the time of day of the call, the length of the call, the destination of the call, etc.
Alternatively, the customer may choose to take advantage of a calling plan offered by the service provider. For example, the customer may subscribe to a calling plan that provides him or her with a set period of time of long distance service during a particular month (or other time measure) at a specified cost. The customer pays the specified cost even if the customer does not use up all of his or her allowed time in the month. On the other hand, if the customer uses up more than the allowed time, the customer may be subject to extra or even premium charges. In some cases, the customer may be prevented from using more than the set period of time. If, for example, the customer is in the middle of a long distance call and the set period of time runs out, then some service providers may cut-off the call.
As yet another alternative for obtaining long distance telecommunication services, a customer may purchase a pre-paid calling card. Unlike the typical calling plan described above, the customer may make use of the pre-paid calling card from almost any telephone number. Also unlike the typical calling plan, the customer generally does not have to use up the time allowed by the pre-paid calling card within a month or some other limited amount of time. Nonetheless, there may be some expiration date of a pre-paid calling card. Like the calling plan, the pre-paid calling card provides the customer with a set period of time of service for a specified cost.
As a result of the limitations of calling plans and pre-paid cards, the customer may strive to keep his or her use of long distance service to just under the set period of time allowed by the calling plan or pre-paid calling card. If the customer uses too much time, there are financial consequences or even an interruption in service. But if the customer uses too little time, then the customer may not be getting the most value out of the calling plan or pre-paid calling card.
There are difficulties, however, in determining how much time of a calling plan or a pre-paid calling card has been used up or is available. The customer could keep track of the allowed time. Whenever the customer made a call, the customer could time the length of each call and accumulate the call lengths to determine how much of the allowed time has been used up. But having to time each call is inconvenient, inefficient, and distracting. Moreover, people other than the customer, like the customer's family, may be making calls. It would be difficult to keep track of everybody's calls.
Another way to keep track of the time available or used in a calling plan or pre-paid calling card is to contact the service provider. Obviously, the service provider keeps track of allowed time so as to cut-off a customer who has exceeded a limit or to assess extra charges. Typically, the service provider designates a particular telephone number to be used by a customer to find out the balance of time remaining or time used up. The customer calls the particular telephone number, and may be requested to enter his or her telephone number subject to the calling plan. In the case of a pre-paid calling card, the customer may have to enter the number assigned to the pre-paid calling card. In addition, the customer may have to provide identification such as a password or personal identity number (PIN). Thus, in addition to the 7 or 10 digits necessary to make the call to the service provider, the customer may have to enter another 7 or 10 digits to identify his or her telephone number or pre-paid calling card, and may have to enter additional digits to provide a password or PIN. Moreover, the customer has to repeat this process each time the customer desires to know how much time may be left in his or her calling plan or pre-paid calling card. This method of keeping track of the available time in a calling plan or a pre-paid calling card is cumbersome, wastes time, and is inconvenient.
Accordingly, there is a need for providing information to a customer about his or her calling plan. In particular, there is a need for providing a customer with information about the time remaining or used-up in a calling plan. There also is a need to provide the customer with the calling plan information in a convenient fashion so the customer does not have to keep track of the allowed time himself or herself, does not have to make separate calls to a service provider, and does not have to provide a lot of information as a requisite to obtaining the calling plan information.