Emergency call service with automatic third party notification and/or bridging

• US 20080226039A1
• Filed: 03/16/2007
• Published: 09/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WSOU Investments, LLC (WSOU Holdings, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Krock, Richard E., Rauscher, Karl F., Goldman, Stuart O., Runyon, James P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,041,017 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/04 for emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42059 Making use of the calling party identifier
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42187 Lines and connections with preferential service
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42391 where the subscribers are hearing-impaired persons, e.g. telephone devices for the deaf
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/527 Centralised call answering arrangements not requiring operator intervention
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/56 Arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities video conference systems H04N7/15

Abstract

A system for processing emergency calls in a telecommunications network includes: receiving a first call at a node (30) of the telecommunications network from a calling party that originated the first call; detecting that the received first call is an emergency call; establishing a conference bridge in response to the detected emergency call; connecting the emergency call over the conference bridge to a designated facility (40) that handles emergency calls; and, automatically originating at least one second call from the node (30) to at least one predetermined third party that is different than the calling party and the facility (40).

Claims

1. In a telecommunications network, a method for processing emergency calls, said method comprising:

(a) receiving a first call at a node of the telecommunications network from a calling party that originated the first call;

(b) detecting that the received first call is an emergency call;

(c) establishing a conference bridge in response to the detected emergency call;

(d) connecting the emergency call over the conference bridge to a designated facility that handles emergency calls; and

,

(e) automatically originating at least one second call from the node to at least one predetermined third party that is different than the calling party and the facility.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein execution of step (e) is begun concurrently with execution of at least one of steps (c) and (d).

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

(f) determining whether or not the third party answers the second call.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

(g) notifying the third party of the emergency call via the second call, if it is determined that the third party answered the second call.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

(h) prompting the third party via the second call to select whether or not they wish to be joined to the emergency call.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein step (h) is executed after step (g) is executed.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

(i) bridging the second call to the established conference bridge over which the emergency call is connected to the facility in response to the third party selecting to join the emergency call.

8. In a telecommunications network, a system for processing emergency calls, said system comprising:

a node of the telecommunications network that receives a first call from a calling party, said node including;

detecting means for detecting that the received first call is an emergency call;

reserving means for reserving conference facilities in response to the detected emergency call;

connecting means for connecting the emergency call using the reserved conference facilities to a designated second party that handles emergency calls; and

,

calling means for automatically originating at least one second call from the node over the telecommunications network to at least one predetermined third party that is different than the calling party and the second party.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the calling means begins origination of the second call concurrently with of at least one of the reserving means reserving the conference facilities and the connecting means connecting the emergency call.

10. The system of claim 8, further comprising:

answer detecting means for determining whether or not the third party answers the second call.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

notifying means for notifying the third party of the emergency call via the second call, if the answer detecting means determines that the third party answered the second call.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

prompting means for prompting the third party via the second call to select whether or not they wish to be joined to the emergency call.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the prompting means prompts the third party after the notifying means notifies the third party.

14. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

joining means for joining the second call to the emergency call via the conference facilities used to connect the emergency call with the second party in response to the third party selecting to join the emergency call.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the second party is a public safety answering point.