Telecommunications services apparatus
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Accused Products
Abstract
In a telephone system, such as a mobile telephone system capable of handling text messages, address signals for telephone communication may be in one of first and second signal formats such as dialled numeric signals and alphanumeric signals. An SMS Router (10) can distinguish between the numeric and alphanumeric signals, and directs numeric address signals to a short message service centre SMSC (18). The alphanumeric address signals may instead be re-routed on the basis of stored information, such as in a database (14), for example directly to an SMS Host (16). Alternatively, the alphanumeric address signals can be converted by the SMS Router (10) to numeric signals, on the basis of the stored information, and then directed to the SMSC (18).
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Citations
34 Claims
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1-14. -14. (cancelled)
- 15. Telecommunications services apparatus for use with a telephone system in which address signals associated with telephone communication may be in one of first and second signal formats, wherein the first signal format is recognisable by communication enabling equipment in the telephone system, the apparatus comprising receiving and directing means for receiving the address signals and being operable to distinguish between address signals in the first and second formats, to direct the address signals in the first format to the communication enabling equipment, and to re-route the address signals in the second format on the basis of stored information accessible to the receiving and directing means, wherein the telephone system is a mobile telephone system for sending and receiving message signals, wherein the first signal format comprises a sequence of dialled numeric signals, and wherein the second signal format comprises a sequence of alphanumeric signals.
- 25. Telecommunications services apparatus for use with a telephone system in which address signals associated with telephone communication may be in one of first and second signal formats, wherein the first signal format is recognisable by communication enabling equipment in the telephone system, the apparatus comprising receiving and directing means for receiving the address signals and being operable to distinguish between address signals in the first and second formats, to direct the signals in the first format to the communication enabling equipment, and to convert the address signals in the second format into address signals in the first format on the basis of information accessible to the receiving and directing means prior to directing the converted signals to the communication enabling equipment, wherein the telephone system is a mobile telephone system for sending and receiving message signals, wherein the first signal format comprises a sequence of dialled numeric signals, and wherein the second signal format comprises a sequence of alphanumeric signals.
Specification