Emergency telephone call notification service system and method

• US 6,735,285 B2
• Filed: 02/15/2001
• Issued: 05/11/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: SBC Properties, L.P. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Tiliks, Dianna Inara, Pelletier, Karen Jeanne, Griffith, Laura Marie, Kovarik, James Daniel, Bartels, Todd August, Blumenschein, Gordon Lynn, Orwick, David Anthony, McBlain, Thomas Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): Ramakrishnaiah, Melur
• Application Number:
  US09/784,589
• Publication Number:
  US 20010009577A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,181 Days
• Field of Search: 379/41, 379/42, 379/43, 379/44, 379/46, 379/47, 379/48, 379/49, 379/50, 379/243, 379/177, 379/201, 379/211, 379/93.24, 379/51
• US Class Current: 379/37
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/04 with alarm systems, e.g. fire, police or burglar alarm systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/04 for emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13098 Mobile subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13103 Memory
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13141 Hunting for free outlet, circuit or channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13176 Common channel signaling, CCS7
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13204 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13336 Store & forward, messaging systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13345 Intelligent networks, SCP
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/1337 Operator, emergency services
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13389 LAN, internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0029 Provisions for intelligent networking

Abstract

A system and method for emergency telephone call notification. The system includes an AIN capable switch, a service control point (SCP) having a database of designated contact numbers associated with a service subscriber telephone number, and an intelligent peripheral (IP) in communication with the SCP for contacting the designated contact numbers. The method includes the steps of recognizing an N11 trigger and the SCP initiating telephone calls, via the IP, to each of the contact numbers corresponding to the telephone number of the subscriber making the emergency telephone call.

Claims

1. An emergency call notification system comprising:

a subscriber telephone;

an AIN capable switch in communication with a public service access point (PSAP) and the subscriber telephone, the AIN switch configured to recognize an emergency telephone call;

a service control point (SCP) in communication with the switch, the SCP comprising a database having a list of emergency call notification service subscribers, the SCP configured to determine if an emergency telephone call was made by an emergency call notification service subscriber and correlate the emergency call notification service subscriber number with a list of at least one designated contact number for the emergency call notification service subscriber; and

an intelligent peripheral (IP) in communication with the SCP, the IP responsive to an instruction from the SCP to contact the at least one designated contact number with a caller ID message, wherein the IP comprises a caller ID generator and the caller ID message comprises a predesignated text message stored in memory.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the IP further comprises a plurality of prerecorded message templates.

3. In a telecommunications system having at least one subscriber telephone in communication with an advanced intelligent network (AIN) capable switch, at least one intelligent peripheral (IP) in communication with the AIN capable switch, at least one service control point (SCP) in communication with the switch, and a public safety answering point (PSAP) in communication with the SCP and the switch, a method of notifying at least one designated telephone number that an emergency telephone call has been made from the subscriber telephone, the method comprising the steps of:

recognizing an emergency telephone call trigger corresponding to an emergency telephone call at the switch;

notifying the SCP of the emergency telephone call;

instructing the IP to dial the at least one designated telephone number; and

informing the at least one designated telephone number of the emergency telephone call from the subscriber telephone, wherein a caller ID message is supplied to the at least one designated telephone number indicating that there is an incoming call from an emergency call notification service.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein instructing the IP comprises sending a message via a wide area network connection to the IP.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the message comprises a TCP/IP message.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein informing the at least one designated number comprises the IP dialing a first of the at least one designated numbers and waiting a predetermined number of rings before trying to contact a next one of the at least one designated numbers.

7. In a telecommunications system having at least one subscriber telephone in communication with a switch, a first network element and a second network element in communication with the switch, and a public safety answering point in communication with the switch, a method of notifying at least one designated telephone number that an emergency telephone call has been made from the subscriber telephone, the method comprising:

recognizing an emergency telephone call at the switch;

the switch informing the second network element of the emergency telephone call;

the second network element instructing the first network element to dial the at least one designated telephone number;

the first network element informing the at least one designated telephone number of the emergency telephone call from the subscriber telephone; and

automatically placing a call from the at least one designated telephone number to the subscriber telephone if a person answers at the least one designated telephone number.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the emergency telephone call is a 911 telephone call.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein recognizing the emergency telephone call further comprises recognizing an N11 trigger.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the second network element further comprises a database having a list of subscriber telephones and a list of at least one designated telephone number associated with each of the subscriber telephones in the list of subscriber telephones, and wherein the second network element instructing the first network element to dial the at least one designated telephone number comprises the second network element retrieving a first of the at least one designated telephone number associated with the subscriber telephone number and instructing the first network element to transmit to the first of the at least one telephone numbers that an emergency telephone call has been placed from the subscriber telephone.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the second network element further comprises a database having a list of subscriber telephone numbers and a list of at least one designated telephone number associated with each of the subscriber telephone numbers, and wherein the second network element instructing the first network element to dial the at least one designated telephone number comprises the second network element retrieving all of the designated telephone numbers associated with the subscriber telephone number and instructing the first network element to contact all of the designated telephone numbers simultaneously.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the first network element informing the at least one designated telephone number further comprises the first network element supplying a caller ID message to the at least one designated telephone number indicating that there is an incoming call from an emergency call notification service.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein the first network element informing at least one designated telephone number further comprises playing a pre-recorded message if a person answers the emergency call notification call.

14. The method of claim 7, wherein the second network element instructing the first network element to dial the at least one designated telephone number comprises the second network element communicating instructions to the first network element over a wide area network.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein each instruction communicated to the first network element over the wide area network comprises a subscriber telephone number, a time of the emergency telephone call, and a list of designated telephone numbers associated with the subscriber telephone number.

16. In a telecommunications system having at least one subscriber telephone in communication with a switch, a first network element and a second network element in communication with the switch, and a public safety answering point in communication with the switch, a method of notifying at least one designated telephone number that an emergency telephone call has been made from the subscriber telephone, the method comprising:

identifying an emergency telephone call at the switch;

the first network element informing the at least one designated telephone number of the emergency telephone call from the subscriber telephone based on instructions received from the second network element in response to recognizing the emergency telephone call at the switch, wherein the first network element transmits a caller ID message containing text alerting a person at the at least one designated telephone number that there is an incoming call from an emergency telephone call notification service.