Method and apparatus for cellular telephone directory assistance

• US 7,184,754 B1
• Filed: 02/04/2003
• Issued: 02/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Farmer Michael
• Original Assignee: Farmer Michael
• Inventors: Farmar, Michael G.
• Primary Examiner(s): SMITH, CREIGHTON H
• Application Number:
  US10/248,652
• Time in Patent Office: 1,484 Days
• Field of Search: 455/414.1, 455/411, 455/426, 455/432, 379/218.01, 707/6, 707/3, 707/9, 707/10
• US Class Current: 455/414.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4931 Directory assistance systems

Abstract

A directory assistance service for cellular telephone numbers, which may be used with the existing directory assistance infrastructure, queries an aggregated database of public cellular telephone listings for all cellular telephone service providers, queries each of the cellular service provider'"'"'s directory services directly, or queries a proxy, which in turn queries each of the cellular service provider'"'"'s databases.

Claims

1. Apparatus for providing cellular telephone directory information, comprising means for providing directory assistance services and means for querying, in response to a request for a cellular telephone number listing, each of a plurality of databases maintained by a different one of a plurality of cellular service providers for records relevant to the request.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising means for tracking the number of times listing information from each of the plurality of cellular service providers is provided in response to a query from the directory assistance service.

3. A method for facilitating directory assistance services, comprising:

aggregating into a database system cellular listing information from each of a plurality of cellular telephone service providers, the listing information including telephone numbers and subscriber identifying information;

receiving from a directory assistance service a query for a cellular telephone number listing and, in response thereto, providing information from the database system matching the query;

regularly updating the database system with changes to the listing information made by each of the plurality of cellular service providers; and

storing information on the number of times cellular telephone listings of each of the plurality of subscribers is provided in response to a query from the directory assistance service; and

compensating each of the plurality of cellular service providers for receiving the listing information at least in part based on the number of times listing information from each of the plurality of cellular service providers is provided in response to a query from the directory assistance service.

4. A method for providing directory assistance for cellular telephone numbers, comprising:

receiving a request for directory assistance;

determining whether the request is for a cellular telephone number; and

if the request is for a cellular telephone number, querying at least one database containing cellular telephone numbers and a subscriber identifying information for each of a plurality of service providers;

storing information on the number of times cellular telephone listings of each of the plurality of subscribers is provided in response to a query from the directory assistance service; and

compensating each of the plurality of cellular service providers for receiving the listing information at least in part based on the number of times listing information from each of the plurality of cellular service providers is provided in response to a query from the directory assistance service.

5. A method for providing directory assistance for cellular telephone numbers, comprising:

receiving a request for directory assistance;

determining whether the request is for a cellular telephone number; and

if the request is for a cellular telephone number, querying each of a plurality of databases maintained by cellular telephone service providers containing cellular telephone numbers and a subscriber identifying information; and

compensating each of the plurality of cellular service providers for receiving listing information at least in part based on the number of times listing information from each of the plurality of cellular service providers is provided in response to a query for listing information.