Method and apparatus for facilitating the completing of telephone regional toll-free calls from outside the region
First Claim
1. A method for use in completing a caller'"'"'s telephone call that is placed to a telephone number that is toll-free to callers that originate calls to said telephone number from predefined geographic areas, said caller'"'"'s telephone call originating from a geographic area outside of said predefined geographic areas, the method comprising the steps of:
- recognizing that the caller'"'"'s telephone call originates outside of the predefined geographic areas;
indicating to said caller that payment of the charges for said telephone call must be undertaken by said caller or said telephone call will be blocked; and
completing said telephone call only if a signal is received from said caller indicating that caller agrees to be responsible for payment of the cost of said telephone call.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Calls to geographically limited toll-free telephone numbers, when originated from outside the predefined geographic region, are completed, but not at the called party'"'"'s expense, by a) indicating to the caller that the telephone call, which otherwise will be blocked, will be completed on his behalf if the caller provides for payment of the cost of the call and b) completing the call if a signal is received from the caller indicating that the caller agrees to pay the cost of the call. Advantageously, the caller is not automatically charged for what he believed would be a free telephone call. The caller may pay for the call by charging it to any conventionally available account for charging telephone calls to which the caller is authorized to charge charges. If the account associated with the caller'"'"'s telephone is selected by the caller for charging the call, a further test is made to determine if the ability to charge the cost of such geographically-limited toll-free calls to the account has been blocked. If the ability to charge the cost of such calls to the account has been blocked, the caller is offered the option of selecting a different method of payment for the call. Alternatively, the direct dial telephone number to which the 800-type telephone number translates may be announced to the caller, so that he may dial it directly himself on a subsequent call.
76 Citations
26 Claims
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1. A method for use in completing a caller'"'"'s telephone call that is placed to a telephone number that is toll-free to callers that originate calls to said telephone number from predefined geographic areas, said caller'"'"'s telephone call originating from a geographic area outside of said predefined geographic areas, the method comprising the steps of:
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recognizing that the caller'"'"'s telephone call originates outside of the predefined geographic areas; indicating to said caller that payment of the charges for said telephone call must be undertaken by said caller or said telephone call will be blocked; and completing said telephone call only if a signal is received from said caller indicating that caller agrees to be responsible for payment of the cost of said telephone call. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A method for use in completing a caller'"'"'s telephone call that is placed to a telephone number that is toll-free to callers that originate calls to said telephone number from predefined geographic areas, said caller'"'"'s telephone call originating from a geographic area outside of said predefined geographic areas, the method comprising the steps of:
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recognizing that the caller'"'"'s telephone call originates outside of the predefined geographic areas; announcing to said caller that said telephone call will be blocked unless said caller agrees to pay for said telephone call; completing said telephone call only if a signal is received from said caller indicating that said caller agrees to pay for said telephone call; and charging the cost of said telephone call to an account specified by said caller. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A method for use in completing a caller'"'"'s telephone call that is placed to a telephone number that is toll-free to callers that originate calls to said telephone number from predefined telephone exchanges, said caller'"'"'s telephone call originating from a telephone exchange outside of said predefined telephone exchanges, the method comprising the steps of:
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recognizing that the caller'"'"'s telephone call originates outside of the predefined telephone exchanges; announcing to said caller that said telephone call will be blocked unless said caller agrees to pay for said telephone call; completing said telephone call and charging the cost of said telephone call to an account specified by said caller only if a signal is received from said caller indicating that said caller agrees to pay for said telephone call; and blocking said telephone call only if said signal is not received.
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24. The invention as defined in 23 wherein, in said announcing step, an indication of the cost of at least a portion of said telephone call is announced to said caller.
- 25. The invention as defined in 23 further including the step of receiving from said caller an indication to charge the cost of said telephone call to an account associated with said calling telephone.
Specification