Call redirection system
First Claim
1. A method for routing a telephone call to a called party associated with a called telephone number, based on the location of the called party, said method comprising the steps of:
- receiving a telephone call for said called party;
then determining within which of a plurality of predefined areas said called party is likely to be located;
then retrieving from a database a call treatment entry associated with the area determined by the step of determining and with the called party, where the database contains a set of call treatment entries for the called party, where each entry associates a call treatment specification with one of said predefined areas and where the call treatment specification of the entry of at least one of the predefined areas includes an instruction to route calls to a device in the area found by the step of determining having a telephone number other than the called telephone number; and
then processing said call according to said retrieved call treatment specification.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A telephone network arranged to give a telephone call placed to a called party'"'"'s personal telephone number a particular call treatment that is selected as a function of the particular one of a plurality of predefined areas in which the called party is determined to be located, each of the plurality of predefined areas having at least two telephone stations with different telephone numbers located therein. The location of the called party is determined from the location of a two-way pager associated with the called party as detected by a paging antenna, e.g., tower, of a conventional two- way paging system that was not necessarily installed for use in completing telephone calls. For each personal telephone number, a table is stored associating a call treatment with one or more of the areas. The particular call treatment associated with an area is applied to calls to the personal telephone number when he is within that area. The associations of particular call treatments with respective ones of the areas is under control of the called party. The particular call treatments may include: (a) routing of the call to a particular wired telephone located within the area; (b) routing the call to a particular wired telephone outside of the area, (c) routing the call to a particular wireless telephone, (d) routing the call to a sequence of wired and/or wireless telephones within or outside of the area until the call is answered, and (e) routing the call to an automated answering platform. A default treatment may also be stored for handling calls that are placed to the called party when the called party is not within any area for which a call treatment is associated.
162 Citations
29 Claims
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1. A method for routing a telephone call to a called party associated with a called telephone number, based on the location of the called party, said method comprising the steps of:
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receiving a telephone call for said called party;
then determining within which of a plurality of predefined areas said called party is likely to be located;
then retrieving from a database a call treatment entry associated with the area determined by the step of determining and with the called party, where the database contains a set of call treatment entries for the called party, where each entry associates a call treatment specification with one of said predefined areas and where the call treatment specification of the entry of at least one of the predefined areas includes an instruction to route calls to a device in the area found by the step of determining having a telephone number other than the called telephone number; and
then processing said call according to said retrieved call treatment specification. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11)
obtaining information defining a default call treatment for said called party when the step of retrieving fails to retrieve a call treatment entry for said call party; and
assigning the default call treatment as the retrieved call treatment.
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3. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein said storing step includes the step of receiving from said called party said information for establishing said associations.
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4. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein said retrieved call treatment is to route said received telephone call to a telephone located outside of said determined area in said determining step, to a landline telephone located in the area, or to a particular wireless telephone.
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5. The method as defined in claim 1 further including the step of routing said call over a telephone line of an interexchange carrier as part of said step of processing.
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6. The method as defined in claim 1 further including the step of transmitting an indication of the current call treatment to said called party.
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7. The method as defined in claim 1 further including the step of transmitting an indication of the identity of said calling party to said called party.
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9. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein said call treatment is time dependent.
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10. The method as defined in claim 1 further including the step of storing information for said called party defining said areas in terms of global positioning system coordinates, and wherein said determining step includes the step of comparing global positioning signals supplied for said called party against said information defining said area supplied by said called party.
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11. The method as defined in claim 1 further including the step of storing information for said called party defining said areas in terms of paging tower antennas, and wherein said determining step includes the step of comparing the one of said paging tower antennas identified as receiving a signal from a two-way paging tower antenna against said information defining said areas supplied by said called party.
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8. The method as defined in claim I wherein said call treatment is the routing of said call to a sequence of destinations until the call is answered or abandoned.
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12. A method for use in establishing a telephone call, said method comprising the steps of:
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receiving a call for a called party at a switch of a telephone network, said call being placed to a telephone number having an attribute that defines it as a translatable number (translatable telephone number);
requesting routing instructions for said call, by said switch, from a network control point when it is determined by said switch that said call is being placed to a translatable telephone number;
requesting by said network control point, from a two-way paging system, the particular area, served by at least two telephones, in which a two-way paging device associated with said called party when it is determined by said network control point that said call is being placed to a translatable telephone number that is subscribed to a two-way paging redirection service;
receiving at said network control point the requested particular area;
retrieving information stored in said network control point on behalf of said called party that associates a call treatment with said particular area;
transmitting from said network control point instructions corresponding to said call treatment associated with said particular area to said switch routing;
receiving said routing instructions at said switch; and
routing said call according to said received routing instructions. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14)
receiving from said called party information associating a call treatment with an identifiable location; and
storing said information in said network control point.
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14. The method as defined in claim 12, wherein said routing step includes the step of carrying said call over a telephone line of an interexchange carrier.
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15. Apparatus for routing a telephone called placed to a number associated with a called party, based on the likely location of the called party, said apparatus comprising:
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a memory containing call treatment entries for the called party, where each entry associates a call treatment specification with a predefined area and where the call treatment specification of the entry of at least some of the predefined areas includes an instruction to route the call to a telephone in the predefined area having a number other than the number;
means for receiving a telephone call for said called party;
means for determining within which of said areas, if any, said called party is likely to be located;
means for retrieving said defined call treatments stored in associated with said determined area, if any, for said called party; and
means for initiating the processing of said call according to said retrieved defined call treatment if a call treatment is retrieved in said retrieving step. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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28. Apparatus for use in a telephone system made up of at least two interlinked telephone networks to complete a caller'"'"'s telephone call made to a number associated with a called party at one of a plurality of geographically dispersed telephones each having a number other than said number associated with the called party, some of said telephones being grouped into at least two service areas, each of said service areas having (i) at least two of said telephones and (ii) a two-way paging receiver that communicates information with a paging coordinating system over communication facilities that are independent of the links connecting said telephones to said telephone system, said apparatus comprising:
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means for receiving and holding said telephone call;
means for obtaining from said paging coordinating system the one of said areas in which a pager of said called party is located;
means for determining a call treatment specified by said called party for processing calls when said called party is located within said obtained area; and
means for processing said call according to said determined call treatment.
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29. A method for routing a telephone call to a party having an associated telephone number, based on the likely location of the called party, said method comprising the steps of:
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storing information supplied by said called party to establish associations between;
(i) predefined areas, each of said areas being served by telephones, and (ii) information defining call treatments, which information, at least for some of said areas, includes an instruction to route the call to one of the telephones in the area having a telephone number other than said associated telephone number;
then receiving a telephone call for said called party;
then determining within which of said areas, if any, said called party is likely to be located;
then retrieving, using said stored information establishing associations, call treatment information that is stored in association with said determined area, if any, for said called party; and
then initiating the processing of said call according to said call treatment defined by said retrieved call treatment information when call treatment information is retrieved in said retrieving step.
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Specification