Method for completing a conference with a personal communications units

• US 5,884,167 A
• Filed: 05/23/1995
• Issued: 03/16/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/1992
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Robertson, John S., Kaplan, Marc P., Carlsen, Ralph
• Primary Examiner(s): CUMMING, WILLIAM D
• Application Number:
  US08/449,377
• Time in Patent Office: 1,393 Days
• Field of Search: 379/58, 379/111, 379/204, 379/157, 379/67, 379/88, 370/62, 455/31.2
• US Class Current: 455/432.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42229 Personal communication services, i.e. services related to one subscriber independent of his terminal and/or location diverting calls from one subscriber to another subscriber, i.e. two different subscriptions H04M3/54; selecting arrangements in intelligent networks H04Q3/005
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/48 Arrangements for recalling a calling subscriber when the wanted subscriber ceases to be busy
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/005 Personal communication services, e.g. provisions for portability of subscriber numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/022 One-way selective calling networks, e.g. wide area paging

Abstract

An improvement in the transparency of personal telecommunications over the prior art is achieved by automatically placing a return call from a personal communications unit of a called individual in response to a call from a caller and alerting the called individual to the existence of the call placed to his personal number only upon an indication that the call from the calling telephone remains in progress. In one embodiment of the invention, the called individual associates his personal communications unit with a telephone channel, before his reception of any calls. Should a caller make a call to the called individual'"'"'s personal calling number, the telephone network causes the transmission of an actuation signal. In response to the actuation signal, the personal communications unit places a call to a predetermined number over a switched telephone network using the aforementioned associated telephone channel. As long as the telephone network determines that the caller'"'"'s telephone call continues to be in progress, it sends an "in progress" signal over the telephone channel to the personal communications unit. During continued reception of the in-progress signal, the personal communications unit causes the generation of an alerting indication. A going off-hook on the telephone channel by a telephone during alerting results in completion of the caller'"'"'s telephone call to the seizing telephone. To this end, the telephone network stops sending the in progress signal and bridges the caller'"'"'s call to the return call placed by the personal communications unit.

Claims

1. A method for use in completing a conference telephone call with a plurality of conferees that is initiated from a calling telephone comprising the steps of:

receiving a call placed to a telephone number of a conference service from said calling telephone;

transmitting actuating signals for actuating personal communications units of each of said conferees;

receiving calls placed by said personal communications units in response to said actuating signals, each of the calls corresponding to one of the conferees;

checking if said telephone call from said calling telephone continues to be in-progress;

transmitting an in-progress signal to the personal communications units if said telephone call from said calling telephone continues to be in-progress if a result of said step of checking is affirmative;

alerting through one of the personal communications units a conferee with an alert for a first time that the conferee is being called, so long as said telephone call from said calling telephone continues to be in-progress; and

connecting said telephone call from said calling telephone with each of said calls from said personal communications units if the corresponding one of the conferees responds to the alert.

2. A method for use in completing a conference telephone call with a plurality of conferees that is initiated from a calling telephone, wherein for each conferee, the method comprises:

receiving an actuating signal for actuating a personal communications unit of each conferee;

placing calls by said personal communications unit in response to said actuating signal;

checking if said telephone call from said calling telephone continues to be in-progress;

generating an alert signal for a first time that each conferee is being called to alert each conferee if said telephone call from said calling telephone continues to be in-progress; and

connecting said telephone call from said calling telephone with each conferee through said personal communications unit if each conferee responds to the alert signal.