US 11,937,150 B2
Method and function for handling a subscriber's communication services
Gaurav Bhatnagar, Delhi (IN); Saurabh Gupta, Etawah (IN); and Robert Törnkvist, Karlskrona (SE)
Assigned to Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ), Stockholm (SE)
Appl. No. 17/413,038
Filed by Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ), Stockholm (SE)
PCT Filed Dec. 12, 2018, PCT No. PCT/EP2018/084499
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Jun. 11, 2021,
PCT Pub. No. WO2020/119900, PCT Pub. Date Jun. 18, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2022/0022011 A1, Jan. 20, 2022
Int. Cl. H04W 4/24 (2018.01); H04M 17/00 (2006.01); H04W 8/18 (2009.01)
CPC H04W 4/24 (2013.01) [H04M 17/20 (2013.01); H04W 8/18 (2013.01)] 16 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method performed by a charging function of a communication network for handling communication services for a subscriber of the communication network, the method comprising:
detecting that available credit in a credit account of the subscriber has reached or fallen below a credit threshold when the subscriber has multiple ongoing communication services consuming credit from the credit account;
sending a threshold notification of the reached or fallen below credit threshold to a user equipment (UE) on which the subscriber has at least one of the multiple ongoing communication services;
determining if a response to the threshold notification has been received from the UE with prioritization of one of the multiple ongoing communication services;
based on determining that a response with prioritization of one communication service has been received, initiating termination of all ongoing communication services except the prioritized communication service;
based on determining that a response with prioritization of one communication service has not been received, determining if information indicating a predefined prioritized communication service is available;
based on determining that information indicating the predefined prioritized communication service is available, initiating termination of all ongoing communication services except the predefined prioritized communication service; and
providing all available credit in the credit account to be available for the prioritized communication service or the predefined prioritized communication service.