METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR COMMUNICATING WITH ONE OF PLURAL DEVICES ASSOCIATED WITH A SINGLE TELEPHONE NUMBER
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system for (and a method of) selectively establishing communication with one of plural devices associated with a single telephone number is provided. In a preferred embodiment, the system includes a wireless connect unit connected between an enterprise private branch exchange (PBX) network and a public switched telephone network. The wireless connect unit preferably serves as a gateway between the PBX and one or more remote communication devices. The remote devices can be used as standard PBX office telephones for both inbound and outbound telephone calls. Thus, features of the PBX network (e.g., voice mail, direct extension dialing, corporate calling plan, etc.) are available to the remote device even though they are not physically connected to the PBX. When the system receives an incoming call, it can route the call to an office telephone and one or more of the remote devices simultaneously or as desired by the user.
113 Citations
64 Claims
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1-51. -51. (canceled)
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52. A telecommunication device comprising:
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a receiving module for receiving an incoming call from a calling device; and
a programmed processor connected to the receiving module for;
identifying a telephone number associated with a recipient of the incoming call, using the identified telephone number to form a first communication path between said processor and a first communication device by dialing a first telephone number and a second different communication path between said processor and a second communication device by dialing a second telephone number, holding the incoming call for a predetermined time until it is determined that the recipient has answered the first or second communication device, authenticating the answered device before forming a completed physical circuit connection between the calling device and the answered device, and routing the incoming call to the answered device using the completed physical circuit connection. - View Dependent Claims (53, 54, 55, 56, 57)
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58. A method of routing a communication from a calling device to a called party associated with a dialed telephone number, the method comprising the steps of:
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receiving at a processor the communication made to the dialed telephone number;
holding the received communication in the processor;
identifying a telephone extension using information within the received communication;
using the identified extension to retrieve a first communication device number associated with the called party and a second communication device number associated with the called party;
forming a first communication path between the processor and a first communication device associated with the first communication device number by placing a first call to the first communication device number;
forming a second communication path between the processor and a second communication device associated with the second communication device number by placing a second call to the second communication device number;
determining if the first communication device answered the first call, and if the first call is answered, routing the received communication to the first communication device to form a completed physical circuit connection between the calling device and the first communication device; and
determining if the second communication device answered the second call, and if the second call is answered, routing the received communication to the second communication device to form a completed physical circuit connection between the calling device and the second communication device. - View Dependent Claims (59, 60, 61, 62, 63)
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64. A telecommunication apparatus comprising:
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a processor programmed to;
receive a communication made to a dialed telephone number;
hold the received communication;
identify a telephone extension using information within the received communication;
use the identified extension to retrieve a first communication device number associated with a called party and a second communication device number associated with the called party;
place a first call to the first communication device number to form a first communication path between the processor and a first communication device associated with the first communication device number;
place a second call to the second communication device number to form a second communication path between the processor and a second communication device associated with the second communication device number;
determine if the first communication device answered the first call, and if the first call is answered, route the received communication to the first communication device to form a completed physical circuit connection between the calling device and the first communication device; and
determine if the second communication device answered the second call, and if the second call is answered, route the received communication to the second communication device to form a completed physical circuit connection between the calling device and the second communication device.
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Specification