INTELLIGENT FORMATTING OF VOIP TELEPHONE NUMBERS

• US 20120027011A1
• Filed: 10/07/2011
• Published: 02/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Chu, Lon-Chan
• Granted Patent: US 8,594,299 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2535 adapted for voice communication over an Internet Protocol [IP] network Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network equipment and services H04M7/006; implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP] H04L69/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0075 Details of addressing, directories or routing tables

Abstract

A system and method are disclosed for intelligent formatting of VoIP telephone numbers. The intelligent VoIP formatting system includes a presentation and user interface layer, an E.164 formatting engine, a location routine, and a database of telephone number data which are used to deconstruct input telephone numbers and reconstruct them as E.164 compliant telephone numbers.

Claims

1. A system for generating an E.164 compliant telephone number from an input telephone number in a voice over IP platform, the system comprising:

a call origin routine for receiving information regarding one or more call origin profiles from which a user makes telephone calls;

a user interface for a user to select a call origin profile from the one or more call origin profiles set via the call origin routine, and for a user to provide a telephone number to call;

an E.164 database including E.164 call information; and

an E.164 call formatting engine for examining the telephone number and the call origin profile received via the user interface, and formatting the telephone call into an E.164 compliant telephone number using the E.164 database if the E.164 call formatting engine determines the received telephone number is not an E.164 compliant telephone number for the call origin profile.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising signaling and voice engine for placing a telephone call using the E.164 compliant telephone number formatted by the E.164 call formatting engine.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the call origin routine receives and stores a name for a call origin profile.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the call origin routine receives geographic information for a call origin profile.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the geographic information is received via user-selection from a drop-down menu.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the E.164 call formatting engine determines if the received telephone number starts with an international direct dialing prefix appropriate to a geographic location specified in the call origin profile.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the E.164 call formatting engine treats the received telephone number as a telephone number for an international call where the E.164 call formatting engine determines that the received telephone number starts with an international direct dialing prefix appropriate to the geographic location specified in the call origin profile.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the E.164 call formatting engine determines if the received telephone number starts with an international direct dialing prefix included in the E.164 database.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the E.164 call formatting engine determines if the received telephone number starts with a national direct dialing prefix appropriate to a geographic location specified in the call origin profile.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the E.164 call formatting engine treats the received telephone number as a telephone number for an national call where the E.164 call formatting engine determines that the received telephone number starts with a national direct dialing prefix appropriate to the geographic location specified in the call origin profile.

11. In a computer system having a graphical user interface including a display and a user interface selection device, a method of generating an E.164 compliant telephone number from an input telephone number in a voice over IP platform, the method comprising:

(a) receiving via the graphical user interface a call origin profile;

(b) receiving via the graphical user interface a telephone number; and

(c) formatting the received telephone number into E.164 compliant telephone number using an origin of the telephone call indicated by the call origin profile received in said step (a) and using a call destination indicated by the telephone number received in said step (b).

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said step (a) comprises step of receiving a call origin profile that is manually entered or configured using a drop down menu displayed via the graphical user interface.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein a user sets a first default call origin profile for a first computing device to be received in said step (a), and a second default call origin profile for a second computing device to be received in said step (a).

14. The method of claim 11, wherein said step (b) comprises step of receiving a telephone number that is manually entered, selected from a list of stored contacts or selected from a website.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein said step (c) comprises analyzing the received telephone number to determine if it is an E.164 compliant telephone number for the received call origin profile, and placing the telephone call if it is determined that the received telephone number is an E.164 compliant telephone number for the received call origin profile.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein said step (c) comprises identifying one of an international direct dialing prefix and a national direct dialing prefix in the first digits of the telephone number received in said step (b), and placing a telephone call using the call origin specified in the call origin profile received in said step (a) and using the international or national destination specified in the telephone number received in said step (b).

17. A method of generating an E.164 compliant telephone number from an input telephone number in a voice over IP system, the method comprising:

(a) receiving a defined call origin location including at least one of a country code and an area code for an intended geographic origin of a telephone call using the input telephone number;

(b) determining whether the input telephone number is an E.164 compliant telephone number;

(c) determining whether the input telephone number is the proper length for a local call made from the call origin location if it is determined in said step (b) that the input telephone number is not an E.164 compliant telephone number; and

(d) adding at least one of an E.164 prefix, a country code and an area code for the call origin location received in said step (a) if it is determined in said step (c) that the input telephone number is the proper length for a local call made from the call origin location.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising the step (e) of determining whether the input telephone number includes a direct dialing prefix if it is determined in said step (c) that the input telephone number is not the proper length for a local call made from the call origin location.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein said step (e) is performed by comparing the first digits of the received telephone number against a database of E.164 direct dialing prefixes.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein said step (e) determines that the input telephone number includes an international direct dialing prefix if the first two digits of the input telephone number are “

00”

.