Telephone routing system with queuing and voice messaging capabilities

• US 5,440,623 A
• Filed: 07/26/1993
• Issued: 08/08/1995
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/1993
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Qwest Communications International Incorporated (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: US West Communications, Inc. (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Moore, Peggy E., Marks, Martin R., Crum, Michael S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Dwyer, James L.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hunter, Daniel S.
• Application Number:
  US08/096,945
• Time in Patent Office: 743 Days
• Field of Search: 379/88, 379/89, 379/212, 379/214, 379/231, 379/232, 379/265, 379/266, 379/309, 379/84, 379/67
• US Class Current: 379/88.26
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/46 Arrangements for calling a number of substations in a predetermined sequence until an answer is obtained
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/523 with call distribution or queueing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/533 Voice mail systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/54 Arrangements for diverting calls for one subscriber to another predetermined subscriber based on the calling party profile H04M3/42059; based on location H04M3/42348; based on presence H04M3/42365; to voice mail H04M3/53308
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/64 Distributing or queueing

Abstract

A telephone routing system for use with a programmable central office switch and a voice messaging system, wherein the programmable central office switch is of the type that provides prioritized features such as queuing, call forward busy line and call forward don'"'"'t answer to the voice messaging system. The telephone routing system comprises a hunt group having one or more incoming telephone lines each having an individual hunt group telephone number associated with it. Each of the individual hunt group telephone numbers has a call forward busy line and call forward don'"'"'t answer to the voice messaging system feature enabled but does not have a queuing feature enabled. A hunt group directory number is associated with the entire hunt group and has queuing, call forward busy line, and call forward don'"'"'t answer to the voice messaging system features enabled. Calls are received by the hunt group on one of the individual hunt group telephone numbers. If all the telephone lines in the hunt group are busy, the call is forwarded to a common hunt group mailbox in the voice messaging system. The common hunt group mailbox plays a message asking if the caller wishes to leave a message or be placed in a queue If the caller wants to be placed in a queue, the call is forwarded from the hunt group mailbox to the hunt group directory number. If all the telephone lines in the hunt group are still busy and an empty slot exists in the queue, then the call is placed in the queue. If all the telephone lines in the hunt group are still busy and there are no empty slots in the queue, the call is retrieved by the voice messaging system back to the common voice message mailbox, where the caller is instructed to leave a message or call again later.

Claims

1. A method of routing a telephone call to one or more telephone lines comprising:

providing a Central Office Switch (COS) in electrical communication with a voice messaging system (VMS) and having prioritized features including queuing, call forward don'"'"'t answer to the VMS and call forward busy line to the VMS;

providing said one or more telephone lines so as to form a hunt group, each of the telephone lines having

(a) a telephone number and provided in electrical communication with the hunt group mailbox,

(b) the call forward busy don'"'"'t answer to the VMS feature enabled, and

(c) the call forward busy line to the VMS feature enabled;

providing a hunt group directory associated with the hunt group and having a corresponding hunt group telephone number, the hunt group directory having queuing, call forward don'"'"'t answer to the VMS and the call forward busy line to the VMS features enabled;

automatically routing the call to the first idle telephone line of the hunt group;

if the call is not answered after a predetermined number of rings, applying call forward don'"'"'t answer treatment to the call at the telephone line and automatically forwarding the call to the VMS hunt group mailbox;

if an idle telephone line is not located after a hunt of all of the telephone lines in the hunt group, applying call forward busy treatment to the call at the telephone line and automatically forwarding the call to the hunt group mailbox;

once the call has been received by the hunt group mailbox, playing a recorded message which provides a calling party the option of disconnecting, leaving a message, or placing the call in queue; and

transferring the call to the hunt group directory if the caller selects the option of placing the call in queue.

2. The method of routing a telephone call as in claim 1, further comprising:

after the call has been transferred to the hunt group directory determining if,

(a) any of the telephone lines of the hunt group are idle, and

(b) if the queue includes an empty slot;

if one of the telephone lines is idle, forwarding the call to the idle telephone line;

if no telephone line is idle and the queue contains an empty slot, placing the call in queue; and

if no telephone line has become idle and the queue does not contain an empty slot, applying call forward busy treatment to the call as the hunt group directory and forwarding the call the VMS hunt group mailbox.

3. The method of routing a telephone call as in claim 2, wherein the step of applying call forward don'"'"'t answer treatment to the call comprises;

providing a plurality of transfer mailboxes in the voice messaging system each associated with a telephone line of the hunt group; and

receiving the call from an idle telephone line of the hunt group that has not been answered and forwarding the call to the VMS hunt group mailbox.

4. A telephone call routing system, comprising:

a Voice Messaging System (VMS) having a common hunt group mailbox;

a programmable Central Office Switch (COS) provided in electrical communication with the VMS and having prioritized features including queuing, call forward don'"'"'t answer to the VMS and call forward busy line to the VMS;

one or more telephone lines that form a hunt group, each of the telephone lines having

(a) a telephone number and provided in electrical communication with the hunt group mailbox,

(b) the call forward don'"'"'t answer to the VMS feature enabled, and

(c) the call forward busy line to the VMS feature enabled; and

a hunt group directory associated with the hunt group and having a corresponding hunt group telephone number, the hunt group directory having queuing, call forward don'"'"'t answer to the VMS and call forward busy line to the VMS features enabled,

whereby the COS is operative to automatically route a call placed to one of said one or more telephone lines to the first available telephone line of the hunt group and if a hunt of all the telephone lines in the hunt group does not locate an idle line, the COS applies call forward busy treatment to the call at the telephone line and automatically forwards the call to the VMS hunt group mailbox, whereupon a calling party is provided the option of disconnecting the call, leaving a message, or placing the call in queue, the COS further operative to automatically transfer the call to the hunt group directory if the option of placing the call in queue is selected by the calling party.

5. A telephone call routing system as in claim 4 wherein the VMS further includes a plurality of transfer mailboxes each provided in electrical communication with the hunt group mailbox and a corresponding telephone line of the hunt group, each of the transfer mailboxes operative to receive a call if call forward don'"'"'t answer treatment is applied at its corresponding telephone line and automatically transfer the call to the hunt group mailbox.