Method and apparatus for remotely selecting the most economical communications transmission medium by selecting from among different mediums and a plurality of simulataneously operable communication devices sharing standard telephone residential wiring

• US 20040151293A1
• Filed: 02/03/2003
• Published: 08/05/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 02/03/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sparktech Corporation
• Original Assignee: Sparktech Corporation
• Inventors: Beck, Thomas J., Anglikowski, Ronald E., Foo, Seck Aik, Jensen, Mark C.
• Granted Patent: US 7,463,726 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/114.02
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/00 Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/745 Customizing according to wishes of subscriber, e.g. friends or family
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8083 involving reduced rates or discounts, e.g. time-of-day reductions or volume discounts
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0108 Customization according to wishes of subscriber, e.g. customer preferences, friends and family, selecting services or billing options, Personal Communication Systems [PCS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0168 On line or real-time flexible customization or negotiation according to wishes of subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0184 involving reduced rates or discounts, e.g. time-of-day reductions, volume discounts, cell discounts, group billing, frequent calling destination(s) or user history list

Abstract

A method and apparatus for enabling a user to remotely select which communications device to use for a particular communications session from among a plurality of communication devices connected to standard residential telephone wiring. The user enters a predetermined signal from any of the devices connected to the residential wiring. The method of the present invention analyzes the signal and, depending on the state of a number of variables related to cost effective operation, selects which of the devices is the most economical for a particular communications session.

Claims

1. A method for remotely selecting the most economical communications transmission medium for sending a particular communications session from among a plurality of communication mediums connected to a plurality of simultaneously operable communications devices sharing standard residential telephone wiring, comprising:

entering a predetermined signal into a control module;

fetching economic decision data from a memory if said predetermined signal is detected by said control module;

analyzing said economic decision data to determine the most economical communications medium for a particular instance of said economic decision data;

selecting said most economical communications medium from among a plurality of communications mediums based upon the result of said analyzing of said economic decision data, and;

enabling the sending of telephony communications using said most economical communications medium by causing a communications circuit to be established over one of a plurality of possible communications circuits.

2. The entering step of claim 1 where the predetermined signal may be entered from any of the simultaneously operable communications devices sharing standard residential telephone wiring.

3. The entering step of claim 1 where the predetermined signal is a Dual Tone Multi Frequency [DTMF] sequence comprised of at least one DTMF tone.

4. The method of claim 1 where the control module resides in a memory which is part of a Consumer Premises Equipment [CPE].

5. The CPE of claim 4 where said CPE is a Plain Old Telephone service [POTs] device.

6. The CPE of claim 4 where said CPE is a cordless radio frequency telephone device.

7. The method of claim 1 where the control module resides in a memory which is a part of a standalone Telephone Adjunct Device [TAD].

8. The analyzing step of claim 1 where the economic analysis is accomplished automatically by an algorithm stored in a memory of a CPE.

9. The CPE of claim 8 where said CPE is a Plain Old Telephone service [POTs] device.

10. The CPE of claim 8 where said CPE is a cordless radio frequency telephone device.

11. The analyzing step of claim 1 where the economic analysis is accomplished automatically by an algorithm stored in a memory of a TAD.

12. The enabling step of claim 1 where a communications circuit is caused to be established by a switch closure.

13. The enabling step of claim 12 where sending of telephony communications further comprises:

a cellular telephone wireless communications medium;

a hard-wired cellular telephone device interface, and;

a communications circuit established between said cellular telephone wireless communications medium, a cellular telephone device and said hard-wired cellular telephone device interface.

14. The enabling step of claim 12 where sending of telephony communications further comprises:

a cellular telephone wireless communications medium;

a local wireless cellular telephone device interface, and;

a communications circuit established between said cellular telephone wireless communications medium, a cellular telephone device and said local wireless cellular telephone device interface.

15. A method for remotely identifying which of a plurality of communications mediums an incoming telephony communication is transiting, comprising:

determining which of a plurality of communications mediums simultaneously connected to a user communications system is receiving an incoming communications session;

outputting a distinctive ring signal to all communications devices connected to said user communications system in response to said determining such that said communications medium can be aurally identified by a user of said user communications system from a remote location.

16. The distinctive ring signal of claim 15 further comprised of one long ring signal burst followed by three short ring signal bursts.

17. A dual system interface apparatus for allowing a Public Switched Telephone Network [PSTN] telephony system and a cellular wireless telephony system to be simultaneously operable while connected to the same residential wiring comprising:

placing a primary and secondary circuit transposer between the main PSTN line and each Plain Old Telephone service [POTs] device attached to said main PSTN line such that said primary circuit of each of said POTs devices appears on said secondary circuit of said main PSTN line;

attaching a first port of a dual system interface to said primary circuit of said main PSTN line;

attaching a second port of said dual system interface to said secondary circuit of said main PSTN line, and;

connecting a cellular wireless telephony device to a third port of said dual system interface, said cellular wireless telephony device communicating with a wireless telephony system such that each of said POTs devices and said cellular wireless telephony device are simultaneously operable.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 where the dual system interface is part of a CPE.

19. The CPE of claim 18 where said CPE is a Plain Old Telephone service [POTs] device.

20. The CPE of claim 18 where said CPE is a cordless radio frequency telephone device.

21. The apparatus of claim 17 where the dual system interface is part of a TAD.

22. The apparatus of claim 17 where a user may select any of the simultaneously operable telephony devices connected to any of a plurality of simultaneously operable communication mediums to use for sending or receiving a particular telephony communications session.

23. The dual system interface of claim 17 where the third port includes a hard-wired wireless cellular telephone device adapter.

24. The hard-wired wireless cellular telephone device adapter of claim 23 where said hard-wired wireless cellular telephone device adapter further includes a standard RJ-11 telephone connector, said RJ-11 telephone connector interfaced directly to said hard-wired wireless cellular telephone device adapter such that communications data transiting a wireless cellular telephone device connected to said hard-wired wireless cellular telephone device adapter are continuously and simultaneously present on said RJ-11 telephone connector.

25. The dual system interface of claim 17 where the third port includes a local wireless cellular telephone device interface such that communications data to or from a wireless cellular telephone device transit said local wireless cellular telephone device interface.