DESCRIPTION

The present invention refers to a system for the comparison of rate plans of consumer uses, by way of example: fixed telephony, mobile telephony, ADSL, electric energy, gas, TV, etc.

The user of such a system is a service user who intends to check for the presence of cheaper rate plans, on the basis of consumption actually incurred in a typical use of the service.

There are currently two typologies of rate comparison service. One is based on typical consumption data estimated by the user on the basis of his/her own perception of service use. The other one is based on actual use data recovered from user's invoice and manually entered by the user in suitable electronic datasheets, or via a download of the electronic version of said invoice and subsequent sending of such data to the provider of the rate comparison service (who will read and process them as needed).

In any case, it is the user him/herself who has to manually provide for data recovery and/or entering in suitable datasheets, or sending to a third party, in order to subsequently carry out the comparison. The entering always occurs by means of guided procedures, usually rather complex, such as to discourage the average user and be a source of mistakes.

There are no known services offering a comparison of rate plans on the basis of actual historical consumption data recovered in a completely automatic way by the comparison system, requiring no conjecture, manual downloading, data sending, datasheets entering, etc.

However, currently marketed rate comparison systems suffer from remarkable drawbacks.

In fact, those based on a conjectural estimate required to the user on the basis of his/her typical consumption behavior have no objective and factual reference to real and historical data of the use. The user can merely enter more or less approximate conjectures on his/her typical consumption, therefore necessarily giving rise to inaccuracy in the comparison.

Instead, in the case of systems providing the entering of historical data by the user, a user shall necessarily extrapolate such data from bill statements and/or invoices and then enter the extrapolated data in the comparison system. However, the data extrapolation job is certainly far from simple and immediate. Statements from different uses are all different among them, data are not always easily interpretable by non-experts; it is however an enormously time-consuming job, which anyhow can be affected by interpreting and/or entering errors.

In both cases, information is too sketchy, mistaken and/or error-prone to allow performing of accurate rate comparison calculations.

Even in the case of a manual download of the electronic invoice and subsequent sending to the provider of the rate comparison service, the procedure is very complex and such as to discourage the user. In fact, just to mention some of the complexities, the user should a) find out whether, where and how he/she can activate an online account with his/her operator, b) opening such an account through a user recognition procedure; and understanding: c) whether and where such data is available on the operator's site (often on more sections of the same site), d) what data is actually needed for comparison, e) how such data can be downloaded, f) in which electronic format they occur, g) where to store such data, h) how to send them to the operator for rate comparison. Apart from the complexity and slowness of such a process, any slightest mistake during this procedure would make a rate comparison impossible, or anyhow unreliable.

The technical problem faced is that related to the comparison of rate plans, based on historical consumption at the user and on any statistic extrapolations derivable from such historical data.

Therefore, object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems, by proposing a completely automated system for performing a selection among a plurality of rate plans as defined in independent claim 1.

Moreover, the present invention is directed to a method for performing a selection among a plurality of rate plans as defined in independent claim 7.

Lastly, the present invention is directed to a computer product as defined in claim

14.

Preferred features of the present invention are reported in the corresponding dependent claims.

The present invention entails several evident advantages.

In particular, a system according to the present invention, preferably based on Web/Wap/Sms/IVR, allows to acquire the details of real costs incurred by a user for a certain service over a given time period, and to find, on the basis of the use of the service during said period, the best rate plans.

The system allows automatic acquisition of data by exploiting credentials for access to web pages of the online account of the service at the website of the same service provider.

Therefore, the present invention allows an objective and factual determination of the best rate on the basis of historical consumption data of the user. I.e., it is introduced an accuracy not possible today with the systems currently in use.

Moreover, the system subject-matter of the present invention is extremely simple to use and requires no intervention whatsoever by the user, who therefore could have absolutely no knowledge of rates, costs, online account creation, file download, etc. The sole information the user needs to enter are those for enabling the comparison system to access his/her online account (user's ID code/s and password).

The novelty and originality of the system according to the present invention consist in performing the comparison of rates on the basis of real historical consumption incurred by the user and recovered in a completely automatic way by the system.

Further advantages, as well as features and operation steps of the present invention will be made apparent in the following detailed description of an embodiment thereof, given by way of example and not for limitative purposes. Reference will be made to the figures of the annexed drawings, wherein: - Figure 1 is an exemplary block diagram of a system according to the present invention; and

- Figure 2 is a schematization of the work file;

To describe the present invention, hereinafter reference will be made to the above-indicated figures.

It is understood that the system and method according to the present invention may find application for any provider-supplied service, from telephony (fixed or mobile), to Internet access, household uses (electricity, water, gas, etc.), etc. It suffices that said service make available a detailed statement of the user's actual consumption via a user account accessible online.

For simplicity's sake in the description, hereinafter reference will be made to a general "service" for a general "user", yet this should not be construed as limitative. In fact, the same system can operate concomitantly with respect to a plurality of services and a plurality of users.

Referring initially to Figure 1 , a system 1 according to the present invention comprises first of all a work file 2 (service file 2) for the storage of information useful to the attainment of the aims set, and a processing and calculating unit 4, e.g. a computer.

The system according to the present invention advantageously comprises means for connecting to a telecommunications network, in particular the Internet network.

Specifically, the work file 2 comprises information (on performances and costs) related to a plurality of rate plans available on the market for a certain service. Preferably, the service file should contain information related to all rate plans available for that service, for all providers of the same service, e.g., all mobile telephony rate plans of all operators in the field.

For this purpose, the system, in particular the processing unit 4, preferably provides means, in particular dedicated software procedures, for executing a so- called "data mining" of rate plans currently available on the market, by recovering information directly from provider sites. The work file 2 could be implemented by means of any one RDBMS (Relational Data Base Management System). Merely by way of example, Oracle, MySQL, MS SQL Server, Informix may be mentioned.

According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the system automatically acquires the provisioning data of the service, as supplied to a user by an actual provider.

Therefore, the provisioning data represent the actual and real service supplied, over a predetermined time period, from the provider to the user. For instance, in the case of phone services, provisioning data will be data (time of call, length, call type, operator called, etc.) related to any call made over that time period.

Information related to provisioning and user consumption data falls within the scope of the invisible web (or deep web), i.e. the set of information resources not indexed by standard search engines. Dynamic contents (requiring a user's entering information in order to extract them) and limited-access pages (websites that require registering, or anyhow limit access to their pages by preventing search engines from accessing thereto) belong to these categories. For this purpose, it is necessary to request to the user the credentials for access to service.

In order to autonomously and independently access these data, stored and preserved on a private file of the provider, the system according to the present invention should therefore be "authorized" by the user him/herself, e.g. through his/her credentials for accessing the provider's website.

Generally, and anyhow ever more frequently, service providers allow users to access their own provisioning and consumption data, through registering on their website, therefore via a security authentication, e.g. the entering of an ID and a password.

Hence, according to the present invention, it is envisaged that the user give to the system, through a suitable and dedicated user interface 3, the credentials for access.

However, the authentication process could differ depending on the service and/or provider (ID+password, email+password, etc.). For this reason, the system, for each service, should preferably store the type of credentials to be requested from the user.

To perform an access to the webpage of the online account containing the user's provisioning and consumption data, the system should know the Internet address URL_user_provisioning_data. Therefore, the work file 2 could advantageously contain said address.

The system, upon login, accesses the pages of the online account.

The processing unit 4 comprises means, typically software procedures, for the automatic acquisition of provisioning data. Such means execute a "parsing" operation, i.e. of acquisition of the provisioning data. The parsing will not be further described, as it is to be deemed within the reach of a person skilled in the art. Depending on the service, there could be used the best data mining technique, ensuring best performance and reliability.

According to the present invention the system, in particular the processing unit 4, comprises means for the calculation of the cost at the user of service provided (obtained from provisioning data), depending both on current rate plan and on each alternative rate plan, stored in its file. Again, such means is preferably implemented via software, according to modes within the reach of a person skilled in the art.

Furthermore, the processing unit 4 comprises software means for the comparison among said calculated costs, apt to obtain the lower cost for the service at issue.

To find the best rate plan, optimization-based ("what-is-best" approach) and simulation-based ("what-if" approach) software techniques will preferably be used. Comparison techniques will not be further described, as them also within the reach of a person skilled in the art. Depending on the service, the best technique could be used, ensuring best performance and reliability.

Lastly, the system comprises means for signaling to the user, through user interface 3, the presence of an alternative rate plan, having a cost lower than the rate plan currently in use. Evidently the user, on the basis of such signaling, could then decide to change rate plan and/or provider for the service at issue.

The system at issue will however allow request and automatic management of use portability to the new rate plan, selected by the user on the basis of the rate comparison performed.

As mentioned hereto, the system is advantageously provided with a user interface 3 which supervises all actions to/from the user.

In particular, the methodology implemented through the system of the present invention envisages that a user may access the service via web (i.e., by an Internet- linked PC), via Wap (i.e., by an Internet-linked mobile phone), via SMS, or via IVR.

Regardless of the channel for accessing the service, the user interface will request the user to provide the information related to the service for which he/she intends to obtain a comparison of rate plans.

On the basis of the service selected by the user, the system, thanks to information present in the file 2, requests from the user specific credentials for access to the online account. Such credentials could be provided by the user via a web or WAP page, via an SMS, or lastly via an automatic IVR system.

The user interface will also allow to request, by a guided procedure, credentials in case the user has forgotten them.

For this purpose, it is useful that the work file stores also the address URL_password of the page dedicated to users' registration. A user not remembering the password for access to his/her online account at the service provider may decide to request the password directly via the system at issue, i.e., without having to leave the user interface. In fact, the system recovers on its own database the URL_password for the request of credentials related to the provider of the service currently used by the user at issue, and automatically requests credentials recovery on behalf of the client. The entire procedure will take place in a completely automatic and user-transparent way. Lastly, the client shall enter such credentials on the system interface in order to request the service itself. Moreover, should the user not be already registered, the user interface will also allow to register at the service provider site, by a guided procedure. For this purpose, it is useful that the work file stores also the address URL_reg of the page dedicated to the request of forgotten credentials.

A user not possessing credentials for access to the online account may decide to automatically register via the system. In fact, the system recovers on its own database the URL_reg for the registration related to the provider of the service currently used by the user at issue, and automatically requests registration on behalf of the client. Thus, the client will receive credentials for access to service. The entire procedure will take place in a fully automatic and user-transparent way. Lastly, the user shall enter such credentials on the system interface in order to request the service itself.

The software procedures related to registration and/or recovery of forgotten credentials will not be detailed further, as they are deemed to be standard procedures, within the reach of a person skilled in the art.

To sum up, the work file 2 of a system according to the present invention might advantageously store the following information:

• services; for each service: o rate plans o operators

• URL_user_provisioning_data, for access to pages containing user's provisioning data

• type of user's credentials required for access

• URL_reg, for user's registration at the provider site (should the user not be already registered thereat)

• information required for registration

• URL_password, for requesting a password possibly forgotten by the user • information required for password request.

To a user not wishing to enter his/her credentials it is offered the option of installing a plug-in for his/her internet browser.

The plug-in is able to extract provisioning data once the user has autonomously opened the related web page on the Internet. In this case as well, it is an entirely automatic system requiring no manual phase or step through complex guided data loading/unloading procedures.

The plug-in automatically executes the parsing and automatically sends data to the system, by exploiting standard Internet communication protocols.

Alternatively, recovery of provisioning and consumption data may take place via an application/metering apparatus residing on the cellular telephone, the fixed telephone or on the electric/gas meter, the TV set, or anyhow on the apparatus dedicated to the service at issue.

The present invention has been hereto described with reference to a preferred embodiment thereof. It is understood that other embodiments might exist, falling within the concept of the same invention, and all comprised within the protective scope of the claims hereinafter.