Time zone based phone services
First Claim
1. A method in a telecommunications network for routing a call, comprising:
- receiving call set-up signals for a called party mobile station;
determining a last known location for the called party mobile station;
determining whether a “
do not disturb”
feature is active for the called party mobile station and whether a message should be delivered to a calling party mobile station prior to continuing to process the call and whether the calling party mobile station has responded to the message in a manner indicating that the call should continue to be routed to the called party mobile station.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus provides for, as a part of call setup and routing whenever a calling party calls a called party, which includes determining a local time for the called party prior to completing call setup. If the local time is within a specified time range, a message is played to the calling party to advise the calling party of the local time for the called party. In one embodiment of the invention, the calling party is given the option of leaving a message or of continuing with the call in the case of an emergency. The message delivered to the calling party may be one that is generated by an interactive voice response unit or by a short message service server. In either case, based upon the calling party'"'"'s response to the message, the inventive method and apparatus result in the cellular network either taking a message for the called party or routing the call to the called party as normal. As an additional aspect of the present invention, the method and apparatus also provide for merely enabling an individual to determine a local time for an entered area code or country code or mobile station. Moreover, if the individual enters a local time, the inventive method and apparatus provide for calculating a corresponding local time for a specified country code or area code or mobile station.
51 Citations
28 Claims
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1. A method in a telecommunications network for routing a call, comprising:
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receiving call set-up signals for a called party mobile station;
determining a last known location for the called party mobile station;
determining whether a “
do not disturb”
feature is active for the called party mobile station and whether a message should be delivered to a calling party mobile station prior to continuing to process the call and whether the calling party mobile station has responded to the message in a manner indicating that the call should continue to be routed to the called party mobile station. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A method in one of a Home Location Register/Visitors'"'"' Location Register, comprising:
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receiving call set-up signals for a called party mobile station;
determining a last known location for the called party mobile station;
determining a local time for the last known location for the called party mobile station; and
producing a local time corresponding to a last known location for the calling party mobile switching center. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8)
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9. A method in a home location register, comprising:
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receiving at least one of a country code, an area code or a cell phone number from a serving mobile switching center (MSC) for a user equipment terminal in a local time request signal;
determining a local time responsive to receiving the local time request signal; and
producing the local time to the MSC serving the user equipment terminal for delivery to the user equipment terminal. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A Home/Visitors'"'"' Location Register (HLR/VLR), comprising:
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a processor for executing computer instructions;
a memory for storing the computer instructions, wherein the computer instructions include;
logic for performing routine home location register functions;
logic for retrieving time zone data from a database;
logic for evaluating the retrieved time zone data; and
logic for generating a message to an MSC corresponding to the retrieved time zone data. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A method in a mobile switching center (MSC), comprising:
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receiving call set-up signals for a call being established between a calling party and a called party, sending to a home location register one of a location update request signal to determine a serving MSC for the called party and a local time request signal;
receiving a local time for one of a last known location for the called party, a country code or an area code;
comparing the local time to a do not disturb time range;
generating a message number to a message delivery device to prompt the message delivery device to generate a message for the calling party and;
playing the message to the calling party. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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Specification