System for completing air-to-ground telephone calls
First Claim
1. A system for completing air-to-ground telephone calls from a caller on an aircraft to a called party on the ground, said system comprising:
- a special purpose platform disposed in the land-based telecommunications network,means for routing all calls made from said aircraft to said platform, andmeans in said platform for interacting with the caller, said platform including(a) means for collecting billing information,(b) means for validating said billing information in real time; and
(c) means responsive to said validation means, for completing the call as either a traditional 1+ long distance call, or as a 0+ operator assisted call.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system for completing air-to-ground telephone calls is arranged so that a call originating from an aircraft is received in a ground station and directed to a special purpose platform disposed in the land-based telecommunications network. The platform, which may be implemented as an interactive voice response system, includes the capability to interact with the caller by (a) collecting billing information, which may be a commercial credit card or a telephone calling card, or other billing mechanism which can be initiated by a request for connection to a telephone operator; (b) validating credit cards and telephone calling cards by initiating a query and receiving a response from elements in the telecommunications network or from an external database; (c) providing auxiliary features such as block calling, free calls, speed dialing, sequence calling, etc.; and (d) depending upon the type of call involved, completing the call as either a traditional 1+long distance call, or as a 0+(e.g., operator assisted) call. After completion of each call, an automated message accounting (AMA) billing record is created and transmitted to the network, for bill processing.
49 Citations
6 Claims
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1. A system for completing air-to-ground telephone calls from a caller on an aircraft to a called party on the ground, said system comprising:
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a special purpose platform disposed in the land-based telecommunications network, means for routing all calls made from said aircraft to said platform, and means in said platform for interacting with the caller, said platform including (a) means for collecting billing information, (b) means for validating said billing information in real time; and (c) means responsive to said validation means, for completing the call as either a traditional 1+ long distance call, or as a 0+ operator assisted call. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A method of completing air-to-ground telephone calls from a caller on an aircraft to a called party on the ground, comprising the steps of:
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routing a call made from said aircraft to a special purpose platform disposed in the land-based telecommunications network, collecting billing information in said platform, validating said billing information in real time, and responsive to validation, completing the call as either a traditional 1+ long distance call, or as a 0+ operator assisted call.
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6. A system for completing an air to Found telephone call, said system comprising
means in an aircraft for routing said call to a ground station, means in said ground station for routing said call to a call processor, means in said call processor for determining the type of billing arrangement used to place said call, and means responsive to said determining means for (a) routing said call to a destination via an operator services position system if said call was placed using a telephone calling card billing arrangement and for (b) routing said call to a destination via a switched telecommunications network if said call was placed using a commercial credit card billing arrangement.
Specification