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User selectable response to an incoming call at a mobile station

  • US 5,559,860 A
  • Filed: 06/11/1992
  • Issued: 09/24/1996
  • Est. Priority Date: 06/11/1992
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. Apparatus for selectively answering an incoming call transmitted from a cellular telephone base station to a mobile station, the incoming call including the telephone number of a calling party, said apparatus comprising, as integral parts of said mobile station:

  • processor means operable by a user of said mobile station to select telephone numbers representing particular calling parties and to assign predetermined response categories to said particular calling parties;

    memory means for storing the selected telephone numbers along with data representing the response categories to which the respective calling parties have been assigned;

    means for comparing the telephone number of the calling party which placed the incoming call with the telephone numbers stored in said memory means so as to identify the particular calling party from which the incoming call is being received;

    means responsive to said data representing the response category to which the identified calling party has been assigned for initiating a respective one of plural predetermined types of responses to incoming calls as determined by said response categories, said predetermined types of responses including a distinctive ringing indicator to identify a high priority incoming call, a distinctive ringing indicator to identify a long distance incoming call, a muted ringing alert, whereby said user is not informed of the receipt at said mobile station of an incoming call, and a transmitted audio message from a speaker, without user intervention, to identify an incoming call, which speaker is an integral part of the mobile station;

    a voice recorder operable to receive said incoming call and selectively actuable to record voice messages received by said mobile station from the calling party;

    scrambling means selectively actuable to enable scrambled communication between said mobile station and the calling party;

    a facsimile device selectively actuable to receive and display facsimile information received from the calling party, print indicia derived from said facsimile information, and transmit facsimile information to the calling party; and

    a data modem selectively actuable to communicate data between said mobile station and the calling party,wherein said predetermined types of responses include the activation of said voice recorder, said scrambling means, said facsimile device or said data modem to receive the incoming call from the calling party to which a predetermined response category has been assigned.

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