Methods and devices for establishing an area party line service for telephone calls
First Claim
1. A method of creating an area party line, comprising:
- receiving a first telephone call at a first local call station directly over a first telecommunication link, the first telephone call providing an area party line indication;
receiving a second telephone call at the first local call station directly over a second telecommunication link, the second telephone call providing the area party line indication; and
in response to receiving the area party line indication of the first and second telephone calls, bridging the first telephone call to the second telephone call at the first local call station to establish an area party line between the first telephone call and the second telephone call.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and devices establish an area party line for telephone calls to provide a geographically based chat forum via a telephone. One method receives telephone calls at a local call station where the telephone calls may be landline calls from callers serviced by the local call station, wireless phone calls from users who are currently located in proximity to the local call station, and/or long distance calls from callers who have dialed into the local call station using an area code and exchange. Callers provide an indication of an area party line, such as a star code, and the local call station bridges the calls together. Another method receives telephone calls at a central call station, where the telephone calls are directed to the central call bridging station from a local call station, and the central call bridging station bridges the callers together depending upon the local call station that the calls are transferred from. The callers may be local callers, long distance callers, or wireless callers to the local call station.
14 Citations
37 Claims
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1. A method of creating an area party line, comprising:
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receiving a first telephone call at a first local call station directly over a first telecommunication link, the first telephone call providing an area party line indication;
receiving a second telephone call at the first local call station directly over a second telecommunication link, the second telephone call providing the area party line indication; and
in response to receiving the area party line indication of the first and second telephone calls, bridging the first telephone call to the second telephone call at the first local call station to establish an area party line between the first telephone call and the second telephone call. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method of creating an area party line, comprising:
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receiving a first telephone call at a first local call station directly over a first telecommunication link, the first telephone call providing an area party line indication;
receiving a second telephone call at a second local call station over a second telecommunication link, the second telephone call providing the area party line indication for the first local call station;
transferring the second telephone call from the second local call station to the first local call station based on the area party line indication of the second telephone call;
receiving the second telephone call transferred from the second local call station at the first local call station; and
bridging the second telephone call with the first telephone call at the first local call station to establish the area party line between the first telephone call and the second telephone call. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
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21. A method of creating an area party line, comprising:
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receiving a first telephone call at a first local call station directly over a first telecommunication link, the first telephone call providing an area party line indication;
receiving a second telephone call at the first local call station directly over a second telecommunication link, the second telephone call providing the area party line indication;
in response to receiving the area party line indication of the first telephone call, transferring the first telephone call to a central call bridging station;
in response to receiving the area party line indication of the second telephone call, transferring the second telephone call to the central call bridging station; and
based on receiving both the first telephone call and the second telephone call from the first local call station, bridging the first telephone call to the second telephone call at the central call bridging station to establish an area party line between the first telephone call and the second telephone call. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. A method of creating an area party line, comprising:
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receiving a first telephone call at a first local call station directly over a first telecommunication link, the first telephone call providing an area party line indication;
receiving a second telephone call at a second local call station over a second telecommunication link, the second telephone call providing the area party line indication for the first local call station;
transferring the first telephone call from the first local call station to a central call bridging station based on the area party line indication;
transferring the second telephone call from the second local call station to the first local call station, and from the first local call station to the central call switching station based on the area party line indication; and
bridging the second telephone call with the first telephone call at the central call bridging station to establish the area party line between the first telephone call and the second telephone call based on the transfer of the first telephone call and the second telephone call from the first local call station. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31)
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32. A telecommunications switching point for establishing an area party line, comprising:
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at least one termination point for receiving incoming telephone calls over telecommunications links, the at least one termination point being configured to detect an area party line indication of the incoming telephone calls; and
a bridging point for bridging incoming telephone calls to establish an area party line, wherein the at least one termination point is further configured to connect the incoming telephone calls to the bridging point upon detecting the area party line indication and the bridging point is configured to bridge the incoming calls received from the at least one termination point. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35)
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36. A telecommunications bridging station for establishing an area party line, comprising:
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at least one termination point for receiving incoming telephone calls over telecommunications links from a plurality of telecommunications switching points; and
a bridging point for bridging incoming telephone calls that are transferred from a same telecommunication switching point of the plurality to establish an area party line for the same telecommunications switching point. - View Dependent Claims (37)
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Specification