Call coverage arrangement
First Claim
1. A method of providing call coverage service for a principal station in a telephone system having a storage memory and serving a plurality of stations, comprising the steps ofstoring call coverage criteria in memory specifying conditions under which calls directed to the principal station will be redirected to coverage,storing in memory identifications of a plurality of call covering stations for the principal station and an order of preference of the call covering stations, andin response to a call intended for the principal station from a calling station and satisfying the coverage criteria, redirecting the call to coverage from the principal station sequentially to each of the covering stations in the order of preference until the call is answered or abandoned.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A call coverage arrangement in a telephone system. Any station served by the system may be assigned to a call coverage group as a principal station. A coverage group includes the identities of a plurality of call covering stations for the principal station and an indication of the order of preference of the covering stations. Call coverage criteria are stored for principal stations specifying circumstances under which calls intended for the principal stations are redirected to coverage. A covered call is redirected sequentially to each of the covering stations in a coverage group in the order of preference until the call is answered or abandoned. The coverage criteria include options based on both the state of a principal'"'"'s station (active, busy, idle, etc.) and the class of an incoming call (internal, external, priority). Principal stations are equipped with a "send all calls" button. The button may be operated while a call is arriving to redirect the call without waiting for automatic coverage to take effect. To give a caller control over the disposition of a call scheduled for coverage, the caller is alerted at the time a coverage criterion is satisified that the call is scheduled for coverage. Thereafter, a short time interval is provided during which the caller may abandon, activate the automatic generation and storage of a callback message or wait for the call to be redirected to coverage.
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Citations
38 Claims
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1. A method of providing call coverage service for a principal station in a telephone system having a storage memory and serving a plurality of stations, comprising the steps of
storing call coverage criteria in memory specifying conditions under which calls directed to the principal station will be redirected to coverage, storing in memory identifications of a plurality of call covering stations for the principal station and an order of preference of the call covering stations, and in response to a call intended for the principal station from a calling station and satisfying the coverage criteria, redirecting the call to coverage from the principal station sequentially to each of the covering stations in the order of preference until the call is answered or abandoned.
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34. A telephone system serving a plurality of stations and comprising
a processor (107), a memory (108), program means (FIGS. 4-6; - 13-21, 37-41) stored in the memory for controlling the processor to provide call coverage for calls directed to the stations, said program means comprising
table means (LXLN6, COVRTBLO) for storing call coverage criteria specifying circumstances under which a call directed to a principal one of the stations will be redirected to call coverage, table means (COVRTBL1 through COVRTBL3) for storing the identity of a plurality of call covering stations for the principal station and an indication of the order of preference of the call covering stations, and wherein the program means comprises means responsive to a call directed to the principal station and satisfying a coverage criterion for redirecting the call sequentially to each of the covering stations until the call is answered or abandoned. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38)
- 13-21, 37-41) stored in the memory for controlling the processor to provide call coverage for calls directed to the stations, said program means comprising
Specification