Method and apparatus for screening telephone calls
First Claim
1. A method of controlling the special service treatment of telephone calls destined for called stations from preselected calling stations comprising the steps ofentering into a memory associated with a particular called station the identity of a preselected calling station and an indication designated by the particular called station of the special service treatment to be given to calls subsequently received from said preselected calling station,identifying each station originating a subsequent call to said particular called station,reading the memory according to the identity of the station originating the call to ascertain the special service treatment indication for each call to the particular called station, anddisposing of the call according to said special service indication.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A telephone system is disclosed for providing customized telephone services. A called customer can screen calls incoming to his station based on the identity of the calling line. The calling line'"'"'s identity is forwarded to the switching office containing the called customer'"'"'s screening memory. The memory is interrogated to ascertain the call disposition based on information priorly put in the memory by the called customer. Selective call waiting, selective call forwarding, priority ringing, and many other customized services are contemplated.
-
Citations
15 Claims
-
1. A method of controlling the special service treatment of telephone calls destined for called stations from preselected calling stations comprising the steps of
entering into a memory associated with a particular called station the identity of a preselected calling station and an indication designated by the particular called station of the special service treatment to be given to calls subsequently received from said preselected calling station, identifying each station originating a subsequent call to said particular called station, reading the memory according to the identity of the station originating the call to ascertain the special service treatment indication for each call to the particular called station, and disposing of the call according to said special service indication.
-
11. A method for screening calls destined to a particular station from other stations comprising the steps of
writing in a memory associated with the particular station the identity of a preselected one of the other stations designated for screening by the particular station, writing in the memory an indication of the special service treatment to be given calls incoming from the preselected station, ascertaining the identity of a station calling said particular station, comparing the identity of the calling station with the identity of the preselected station in the memory, reading the memory to ascertain the special service indication for the calling station when the calling station identity matches the identity of the preselected station, and disposing of the call according to the indication read from said memory.
- 14. In a telephone system having stations, a network, and a program controlled processor for controlling the interconnection of said stations over said network, and a memory for storing program instructions for directing said processor, said memory characterized by a list controlled by a particular station of telephone numbers of preselected other stations and an indication associated with each telephone number of the routing of calls from that number to the particular station.
Specification