EMERGENCY NUMBER SELECTION FOR MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS DEVICE

• US 20110059722A1
• Filed: 11/09/2010
• Published: 03/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/15/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Abdel-Kader, Sherif, Majkic, Srdjan
• Granted Patent: US 8,437,735 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/404.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72418 for supporting emergency services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/7243 with interactive means for internal management of messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72457 according to geographic location
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/04 with alarm systems, e.g. fire, police or burglar alarm systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/06 including a wireless LAN interface

Abstract

Automatically selecting an emergency number for use by a mobile communications device enabled for Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communications, including: receiving at the mobile communications device a geographic indicator in a beacon frame transmitted from a wireless access point of a wireless local area network that is connected to an Internet Protocol network; and determining from a plurality of emergency numbers stored in a storage element of the mobile communications device a selected emergency number in dependence on the received geographic indicator.

Claims

1. A mobile communications device enabled to make telephone calls, comprising:

a controller for controlling the operation of the device;

a user input interface coupled to the controller;

a plurality of communications subsystems coupled to the controller for exchanging signals with respective wireless networks including a wireless local area network and a wireless wide area network (WAN); and

an electronic storage element coupled to the controller and having stored thereon a plurality of emergency numbers that are each associated with a country code;

wherein the controller is configured to, upon receiving through the user input interface a user input indicating that a user of the mobile communications device wants to initiate an emergency call;

determine if a wireless WAN is acquired through at least one of the communications subsystems at the time that the user input is received, and if so initiate a call from the mobile communications device to an emergency number selected from the plurality of emergency numbers in dependence on country code information received by the mobile communications device from the wireless WAN; and

if a wireless WAN is not acquired through at last one of the communications subsystems at the time that the user input is received, then determine if a WLAN is acquired through one of the communications subsystems and if so initiating a call from the mobile communications device to an emergency number selected from the plurality of emergency numbers in dependence on country code information received by the mobile communications device from the WLAN.

2. The device of claim 1 wherein the WLAN comprises a WI-FI network and the Wireless WAN comprises at least one of a Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) network and a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) network.

3. A mobile communications device enabled to make telephone calls, comprising:

a controller for controlling the operation of the device;

a user input interface coupled to the controller;

a plurality of communications subsystems coupled to the controller for exchanging signals with respective wireless networks; and

an electronic storage element coupled to the controller and having stored thereon a plurality of geographic indicators and emergency numbers associated with the geographic indicators;

wherein the geographic indicators each have a respective call order preference relative to the other geographic indicators, and the controller is configured for selecting an emergency number for use in a telephone call to an emergency service by;

selecting from the stored geographic indicators the geographic indicator having the highest call order preference at the time that the emergency call is initiated; and

determining from a plurality of emergency numbers stored in the storage element of the mobile communications device a selected emergency number in dependence on the selected geographic indicator.

4. The device of claim 3 wherein the controller is further configured for:

determining if a call to the selected emergency number can be successfully placed, and if not;

selecting from the stored geographic indicators a further geographic indicator having a next highest call order preference;

determining from the plurality of emergency numbers a further selected emergency number in dependence on the further selected geographic indicator; and

determining if a call to the further selected emergency number can be successfully placed.

5. The device of claim 3 wherein the stored geographic indicators are stored in a list ordered according to the relative call order preferences of the geographic indicator.

6. The device of claim 3 wherein the controller is further configured for receiving at least some of the geographic indicators through different wireless networks, determining the call order preferences for the at least some of the geographic indicators in dependence on which wireless networks the mobile communications device has acquired, and storing the at least some geographic indicators in the electronic storage element.

7. The device of claim 3 wherein the device is enabled for Voice Over Internet Protocol through a wireless local area network (WLAN) and is configured to receive at least one of the geographic indicators in a beacon frame transmitted from a wireless access point of the WLAN.

8. The device of claim 7 wherein the device is also enabled for voice communications over a wireless wide area network (WAN), and enabled to receive at least one of the geographic indicators from the wireless WAN, wherein the controller is configured to store the geographic indicator received from the wireless WAN with a higher call order preference than the geographic indicator received from the WLAN when the wireless WAN is acquired by the mobile communications device, and is configured to store the geographic indicator received from the WLAN with a higher call order preference than the geographic indicator received from the wireless WAN when the WLAN but not the wireless WAN is acquired by the mobile communications device.

9. A method of selecting an emergency number for use by a mobile communications device that is enabled for voice communications and has stored thereon a plurality of geographic indicators and emergency numbers associated with the geographic indicators, the geographic indicators each having a respective call order preference relative to the other geographic indicators, the method comprising:

detecting user input to initiate an emergency call;

selecting from the stored geographic indicators the geographic indictor having the highest call order preference at the time that the user input is detected; and

determining from a plurality of emergency numbers stored in the storage element of the mobile communications device a selected emergency number in dependence on the selected geographic indicator.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

determining if a call to the selected emergency number can be successfully placed, and if not;

selecting from the stored geographic indicators a further geographic indicator having a next highest call order preference;

determining from the plurality of emergency numbers a further selected emergency number in dependence on the further selected geographic indicator; and

determining if a call to the further selected emergency number can be successfully placed.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the stored geographic indicators are stored in a list ordered according to the call order preferences of the geographic indicator.

12. The method of claims 9 comprising:

receiving at least some of the geographic indicators through different wireless networks;

determining the call order preferences for the at least some of the geographic indicators in dependence on which wireless networks the mobile communications device has acquired; and

storing the at least some geographic indicators in an electronic storage element of the mobile communications device.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the mobile communications device is enabled for Voice Over Internet Protocol through a wireless local area network (WLAN) and wherein receiving at least some of the geographic indicators comprises receiving at least one of the geographic indicators in a beacon frame transmitted from a wireless access point of the WLAN.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the mobile communications device is also enabled for voice communications over a wireless wide area network (WAN), wherein receiving at least some of the geographic indicators comprises receiving at least one of the geographic indicators from the wireless WAN, storing the at least some geographic indicators comprises storing the geographic indicator received from the wireless WAN with a higher call order preference than the geographic indicator received from the WLAN when the wireless WAN is acquired by the mobile communications device, and storing the geographic indicator received from the WLAN with a higher call order preference than the geographic indicator received from the wireless WAN when the WLAN but not the wireless WAN is acquired by the mobile communications device.

15. A method of automatically selecting an emergency number for use by a mobile communications device enabled for Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communications, comprising:

receiving at the mobile communications device a geographic indicator in a beacon frame transmitted from a wireless access point of a wireless local area network that is connected to an Internet Protocol network; and

determining from a plurality of emergency numbers stored in a storage element of the mobile communications device a selected emergency number in dependence on the received geographic indicator.

16. The method of claim 15 comprising determining if a user of the mobile communications device is attempting to make a call to an emergency service and if so initiating a VoIP call from the mobile communications device to the selected emergency number.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein the access point is a Wi-H access point.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein the wireless local area network is an IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g or 802.11n compliant network.

19. The method of claim 15 wherein the geographic indicator is a country code set by the International Standards Organization (ISO).

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the beacon frame is an 802.11d compliant beacon frame.