Method for automatically converting a stored telephone number of cellular phone for dialing in a different country

• US 6,941,159 B2
• Filed: 05/28/2002
• Issued: 09/06/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Beijing Zhigu Tech Company, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Inventec Appliances Corporation (Inventec Corporation)
• Inventors: Tsai, Tony, Di, Zhu-Min
• Primary Examiner(s): Moise, Emmanuel L.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, David Q.
• Application Number:
  US10/155,117
• Publication Number:
  US 20040204118A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,197 Days
• Field of Search: 455/433, 455/432.1, 455/445, 455/434, 455/435, 455/456, 209/228
• US Class Current: 455/564
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/27485 Appending a prefix to or inserting a pause into a dialling sequence
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/724 User interfaces specially adapted for cordless or mobile telephones

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for automatically converting a telephone number for dialing in a different country, which comprises the steps of establishing a destination reference table including essential data, setting a roaming place table, establishing a telephone book in the cellular phone, selecting a telephone number from the telephone book, searching the essential data from the destination reference table for making a call in a roaming place selected from the roaming place table based on the selected roaming place by a CPU of the cellular phone, modifying the searched telephone number based on a predetermined rule, and dialing the modified telephone number from the cellular phone in the roaming place.

Claims

1. A method for automatically converting a telephone number for dialing in a different country comprising the steps of:

establishing a destination reference table including essential data in a cellular phone;

setting a roaming place table of the cellular phone; and

establishing a telephone book having names of persons and associated telephone numbers listed sequentially in the cellular phone;

wherein once a user has selected a telephone number from the telephone book, performing the steps of;

reading data about dialing from the destination reference table;

reading the telephone number from the telephone book;

determining whether the international code is contained in the telephone number;

when the international code is contained in the telephone number, determining whether the country code contained in the telephone number is the same as that of the roaming place based on the destination reference table;

when the international code is not contained in the telephone number, removing the international code from the telephone number and adding the international code of the roaming place to take the place of the removed international code prior to dialing;

when the country code contained in the telephone number is the same as that of the roaming place based on the destination reference table, removing the international code from the phone number and removing the country code from the telephone number;

determining whether a numeral “

0”

is required to be added in front of the area code of the telephone number based on the destination reference table;

when the numeral “

0”

is required to be added on front of the area code of the telephone number based on the destination reference table, adding the numeral “

0”

in front of the area code of the telephone number; and

dialing the telephone number.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the essential data comprises destinations, countries, international codes, country codes, area codes and whether symbols are supported, so that the cellular telephone is capable of identifying the international code, the country code, the area code, and the symbol of the telephone number based on the destination reference table.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of, when the international code is not contained in the telephone number:

determining whether a symbol is contained in the telephone number;

when the symbol is contained in the telephone number, determining whether the country code contained in the telephone number is the same as that of the roaming place based on the destination reference table;

when the symbol is contained in the telephone number, determining whether the country code contained in the telephone number is the same as that of the roaming place based on the destination reference table and removing the symbol from the telephone number;

removing the country code from the telephone number;

determining whether the numeral “

0”

is required to be added in front of the area code for the telephone number based on the destination reference table; and

when the numeral “

0”

is required to be added in front of the area code of the telephone number based on the destination reference table, adding the numeral “

0”

in front of the area code of the telephone number or else dialing the telephone number which does not contain the symbol and the country code.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising the steps of, when the symbol is contained in the telephone number and the country code contained in the telephone number is not the same as that of the roaming place based on the destination reference number:

determining whether the symbol is associated with the roaming place based on the destination reference table;

wen the symbol is associated with the roaming place based on the destination reference table, dialing the telephone number or else removing the symbol from the telephone number and adding the international code of the roaming place to take the place of the removed symbol prior to dialing the telephone number.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising the steps of, when the symbol is not contained in the telephone number:

determining whether the numeral “

0”

is required to be removed from the telephone number based on the destination reference table;

when the numeral “

0”

is required to be removed from the telephone number based on the destination reference table, removing the numeral “

0”

from the area code of the telephone number;

adding the country code of a resident place to take the place of the removed numeral “

0”

; and

adding the international code of the roaming place in front of the country code based on the destination reference table prior to dialing the telephone number.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising the steps of, when the numeral “

0”

is not required to be removed from the telephone number based on the destination reference table;

adding the country code of the resident place to take the place of the removed numeral “

0”

based on the destination reference table; and

adding the international code for the roaming place in front of the country code based on the destination reference table prior to dialing the telephone number.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the resident place is a place where the user lives while working for a predetermined long period of time.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the telephone numbers contained in the telephone book of the cellular phone belonging to the user are set and stored based on the resident place.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the roaming place is a place where the user travels for less than a predetermined short period of time.