A portable meter-billing machine, for issuing bills to the customers of public utilities such as town gas and electricity which are supplied to the consumers through meters at the consumer's premises, comprises a portable carrying case for the official meter reader to carry to successive premises, the case being provided with a keyboard for entering the new meter reading at the premises of each successive consumer and housing a data memory storing the previous meter-readings of the respective co...

A lightweight portable utility billing apparatus is described for enabling a utility (private or public) meter reader to: (1) read utility meters of a number of utility customers on a selected route and obtain current meter value information from each customer; (2) record the current meter value information; (3) automatically calculate the customer utility charges; (4) print customer bills containing the calculated charges thereon; and (5) deliver the customer bills to the customer. The apparatu...

A recording instrument, such as an electrical power meter, controls the actuation of an electrical switch from one position to another at a rate which is a function of a measured quantity, such as kilowatt hours. The electrical switch controls the direction of current flow through a magnetic recording head so that information representing the measured quantity can be placed on a recording medium. A constant current power supply is provided to insure consistency of information placed on the recor...

In a mobile communication system wherein connection is provided between a vehicle and an ordinary telephone network through one of the radio base stations which are installed within a district in which the vehicle passes the radio base station being connected to an exchange station associated with the telephone network, a billing system in mobile communication, wherein an out-band signal is sent from the vehicle to an exchange equipment in the exchange station whereupon a second out-band signal ...

A utility billing transactor is disclosed for entering a new meter reading, computing the amount of utility service delivered as the difference between a previous meter reading and the new meter reading, computing the amount to be paid, and printing a bill showing the new meter reading and the amount due. A card, which has the customer's identification (ID) number, previous meter reading and billing rate code entered on it, is inserted into the transactor to initiate automatic sequencing of step...

The cost of a telephone toll call is shared by arranging the billing system of the telephone toll carrier to permit sharing of the period cost for at least one indivisible time period of a toll call. Accordingly, at least a portion of the period cost associated with at least one of the indivisible time periods of a toll call is assigned to both the terminating and originating subscribers, so that each subscriber to the toll call is billed for a portion of the total basic cost incurred for each o...

A computer software security and billing system is disclosed in which the application program is enciphered in accordance with an algorithm driven by a numeric key. The user's computer is provided with a hardware security module and a removable billing module, both of which carry unique codes. A security program accesses the application program and also writes information about billing into the billing module. The billing module is periodically replaced so the user can be charged based on amount...

Systems and methods for preparing reports and for displaying information concerning transactions between service providers and service customers including preprocessing of records relating to transaction details in order to create indices enabling rapid sorting of the records.

The system includes bar code reading apparatus which communicates with a hand held computer. The computer includes an encounter, diagnosis and procedure data base stored in memory. Bar coded procedure and diagnosis information readable by the bar code reader is provided. The computer is programmed to determine a level of service from the encounter information selected by the healthcare provider. The system provides an accurate way of assessing the appropriate level of encounter and it provides a...

A television cable billing method comprises establishing a continuous communications link between a provider and a plurality of customers over a single duplex transmission line. A billable account number is assigned to each customer and each customer is billed a flat fee rate for the continuous communications link. A customer communicates a request for a product or service over the communications link together with the customer's billing account number. The product or service is provided to the ...