System for automatically providing customer access to alternative telephony service providers
First Claim
1. In a telecommunications network having at least one switching system connected to a plurality of calling stations, a method of automatically routing a call from one of the plurality of calling stations to a selected one of a plurality of service providers accessible from the switching system, said selected service provider offering the lowest cost service for carrying the call, comprising the steps of:
- storing in a data base rate information regarding said plurality of service providers and said plurality of calling stations, said data base being associated with said switching system such that it is accessible by all calling stations;
receiving the call in said switching system;
before accessing the data base, determining if accessing the data base is economically justified for the call;
accessing said data base responsive to receiving the call;
retrieving from said data specific rate information associated with said call;
determining the selected one of said plurality of service providers based on said specific rate information; and
routing the call through said selected one of said service provider.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A telecommunications network including a plurality of local exchanges or switching systems, each local switch supporting at least one customer line accessed by customer premise equipment (CPE) such as telephone station sets or multimedia stations. The local switches are connected to one another directly and through tandem switches to create the network. A data base is associated with each local exchange, or with a limited number of local exchanges, and is accessed by the local exchange to provide information for controlling the routing of a call. Each data base contains rate information for the service providers offering competitive services. Such rate information includes the service providers'"'"' basic rate structures, time of day discounts, group calling plans, usage discounts and the like. The switching system, in response to information provided by the data base, automatically routes the call to the lowest cost service provider based on this rate information. The data base is updated to reflect changes in service provider rates and to record calls made by each customer for purposes of tracking quantity calling discounts or the like and to update the rate information.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. In a telecommunications network having at least one switching system connected to a plurality of calling stations, a method of automatically routing a call from one of the plurality of calling stations to a selected one of a plurality of service providers accessible from the switching system, said selected service provider offering the lowest cost service for carrying the call, comprising the steps of:
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storing in a data base rate information regarding said plurality of service providers and said plurality of calling stations, said data base being associated with said switching system such that it is accessible by all calling stations; receiving the call in said switching system; before accessing the data base, determining if accessing the data base is economically justified for the call; accessing said data base responsive to receiving the call; retrieving from said data specific rate information associated with said call; determining the selected one of said plurality of service providers based on said specific rate information; and routing the call through said selected one of said service provider. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A telecommunications network including a switching system connected to a plurality of calling stations, said switching system receiving a call made by a calling party from one of the plurality of calling stations and routing said call to a selected one of a plurality of service providers accessible from the switching system, said selected one of a plurality of service providers offering the lowest cost service for carrying the call, comprising:
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a data base for storing rate information on said plurality of service providers and said plurality of calling stations, said data base being associated with said switching system such that it is accessible by said plurality of calling stations; means for receiving a call in said switching system; means for preliminarily determining if accessing the data base is economically justified; means for accessing said data base responsive to receiving said call; means for retrieving from said data base, specific rate information associated with said call; means for determining the selected one of said plurality of service providers based on said specific rate information; and means for routing the call through said selected one of said service provider. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification