System for providing emergency voice mail service

• US 20070142027A1
• Filed: 12/16/2005
• Published: 06/21/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia of America Corporation (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Bushnell, William
• Granted Patent: US 7,929,941 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/404.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/04 for emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4874 Intercept announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/533 Voice mail systems

Abstract

The system for providing emergency voice mail service includes two components: a first component that informs a calling party that emergency voice mail service has been activated due to an interruption in telephone service provided by the affected local exchange(s), and a second component that provides emergency voice mail service to customers who are displaced from their residences or simply affected by the service outage. The calling party that wishes to leave a message or the customer whose service is interrupted and wishes to listen to their messages calls a nationwide toll free number and is routed to the Emergency Voice Mail System. The caller is asked to enter the telephone number of the customer who is out of service and then can enter a predetermined code to leave a voice mail message or retrieve a voice mail message for the wire-line or wireless customer who is out of service.

Claims

1. An Emergency Voice Mail System connected to the telephone network for providing emergency voice mail service to a plurality of telephone customers whose serving local exchange is suffering a service outage, comprising:

emergency voice mail provisioning means for activating emergency voice mail service for said plurality of telephone customers whose serving local exchange is suffering a service outage;

customer mail box means for storing voice messages for each of said plurality of telephone customers; and

mail box interface means, responsive to a calling party dialing a telephone number of one of said plurality of telephone customers, for providing said calling party with access to said customer mail box means to record a message for said one of said plurality of telephone customers.

2. The system for providing emergency voice mail service of claim 1 wherein said emergency voice mail provisioning means comprises:

administrator interface means for enabling a telephone network administrator to access said system for providing emergency voice mail service on a secure basis; and

coverage means for enabling said network administrator to define said plurality of telephone customers by identifying said serving local exchange that is suffering a service outage.

3. The system for providing emergency voice mail service of claim 1 further comprising:

incoming call rerouting means for rerouting an incoming call, received from a calling party and directed to said telephone customer, to a recorded announcement system for providing said calling party with instructions for accessing said Emergency Voice Mail System.

4. The system for providing emergency voice mail service of claim 3 further comprising:

access means, responsive to said calling party dialing a predetermined code when connected to said recorded announcement system, for redirecting said calling party from said recorded announcement system to said mail box means.

5. The system for providing emergency voice mail service of claim 3 further comprising:

Emergency Voice Mail System access means for delivering data indicative of a listed directory number of said Emergency Voice Mail System from said recorded announcement system to said calling party.

6. The system for providing emergency voice mail service of claim 1 wherein said mail box interface means comprises:

password access means for providing password protection of said customer voice mail box for said telephone customer.

7. The system for providing emergency voice mail service of claim 6 wherein said mail box interface means further comprises:

personalized announcement means for providing a calling party with a recorded announcement from said telephone customer.

8. The system for providing emergency voice mail service of claim 1 further comprising:

service restoration means, responsive to said serving local exchange being restored to service from said service outage, for enabling each of said plurality of telephone customers to individually deactivate said emergency voice mail service for their customer voice mail box.

9. The system for providing emergency voice mail service of claim 1 further comprising:

service restoration means, responsive to said serving local exchange being restored to service from said service outage, for automatically deactivating said emergency voice mail service for said plurality of telephone customers.

10. A method of operating an Emergency Voice Mail System that is connected to the telephone network for providing emergency voice mail service to a plurality of telephone customers whose serving local exchange is suffering a service outage, comprising:

activating emergency voice mail service for said plurality of telephone customers whose serving local exchange is suffering a service outage;

storing voice messages for each of said plurality of telephone customers in a customer voice mail box; and

providing, in response to a calling party dialing a telephone number of one of said plurality of telephone customers, said calling party with access to said customer mail box means to record a message for said one of said plurality of telephone customers.

11. The method of providing emergency voice mail service of claim 10 wherein said step of activating comprises:

enabling a telephone network administrator to access said system for providing emergency voice mail service on a secure basis; and

enabling said network administrator to define said plurality of telephone customers by identifying said serving local exchange that is suffering a service outage.

12. The method of providing emergency voice mail service of claim 10 further comprising:

rerouting an incoming call, received from a calling party and directed to said telephone customer, to a recorded announcement system for providing said calling party with instructions for accessing said Emergency Voice Mail System.

13. The method of providing emergency voice mail service of claim 12 further comprising:

redirecting, in response to said calling party dialing a predetermined code when connected to said recorded announcement system, said calling party from said recorded announcement system to said customer voice mail box.

14. The method of providing emergency voice mail service of claim 12 further comprising:

delivering data indicative of a listed directory number of said Emergency Voice Mail System from said recorded announcement system to said calling party.

15. The method of providing emergency voice mail service of claim 10 wherein said step of providing comprises:

providing password protection of said customer voice mail box for said telephone customer.

16. The method of providing emergency voice mail service of claim 15 wherein said providing further comprises:

providing a calling party with a recorded announcement from said telephone customer.

17. The method of providing emergency voice mail service of claim 10 further comprising:

enabling, in response to said serving local exchange being restored to service from said service outage, each of said plurality of telephone customers to individually deactivate said emergency voice mail service for their customer voice mail box.

18. The method of providing emergency voice mail service of claim 10 further comprising:

automatically deactivating, in response to said serving local exchange being restored to service from said service outage, said emergency voice mail service for said plurality of telephone customers.