Method and apparatus for presence indication of cellular telephones

• US 20070250579A1
• Filed: 04/21/2006
• Published: 10/25/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RingCentral Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Siemens Communications Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Caspi, Rami, Blohm, Jeffrey
• Granted Patent: US 7,840,212 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/12 between location registers or mobility servers

Abstract

A telecommunications system includes a plurality of cellular telephone networks; a presence server configured to receive cellular telephone network registration information from presence clients and provide cellular telephone network identification indicia to others of said presence clients.

Claims

1. A telecommunications system, comprising:

a plurality of cellular telephone networks;

a presence server configured to receive cellular telephone network registration information from presence clients and provide cellular telephone network identification indicia to others of said presence clients.

2. A telecommunications system in accordance with claim 1, wherein said presence server comprises an instant messaging server.

3. A telecommunications system in accordance with claim 2, wherein said presence server provides a common indicia for all presence clients registered to a same cellular telephone network.

4. A telecommunications method, comprising:

registering a user with a presence service;

associating a cellular telephone network with said user; and

providing an indication to said user in conjunction with presence information if another user is associated with the same cellular telephone network.

5. A telecommunications method in accordance with claim 4, wherein said presence service comprises an instant messaging service.

6. A telecommunications method in accordance with claim 4, wherein said providing an indication comprises providing a graphical indication on a graphical user interface.

7. A telecommunications method in accordance with claim 6, wherein said providing a graphical indication comprises providing a color-coded indication.

8. A telecommunications system, comprising:

an instant messaging service including a presence service for monitoring an online status of a plurality of users, said instant messaging service configured to maintain a database of cellular telephone networks associated with individual ones of said plurality of users; and

a plurality of instant messaging clients configured to display online status and associated cellular telephone networks of said plurality of users received from said presence service.

9. A telecommunications system in accordance with claim 8, said plurality of instant messaging clients configured to upload an identification of an associated cellular telephone network upon self-configuration.

10. A telecommunications system in accordance with claim 8, wherein a display of associated cellular telephone networks includes a common display across multiple instant messaging clients for a common cellular telephone network.

11. A telecommunications system in accordance with claim 10, said plurality of instant messaging clients configured to display whether a contact list member is associated with a common cellular telephone network.

12. A telecommunications system in accordance with claim 11, wherein display whether a contact list member is associated with a common cellular telephone network comprises a display of a common color.

13. A telecommunications method, comprising:

assigning a common color code indicia to users of same cellular telephone networks;

transmitting said color code indicia to users of a presence service.

14. A method, comprising:

providing a plurality of cellular telephone networks;

providing a presence server configured to receive cellular telephone network registration information from presence clients and provide cellular telephone network identification indicia to others of said presence clients.

15. A method in accordance with claim 14, wherein said presence server comprises an instant messaging server.

16. A method in accordance with claim 15, wherein said presence server provides a common indicia for all presence clients registered to a same cellular telephone network.