Methods and devices for establishing an area party line service for telephone calls

• US 7,551,733 B2
• Filed: 06/24/2003
• Issued: 06/23/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hill, Sammie W., Denny, Michael S.
• Primary Examiner(s): ADDY, THJUAN KNOWLIN
• Application Number:
  US10/603,402
• Publication Number:
  US 20040264669A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,191 Days
• Field of Search: 379/202.01, 379/121.01, 379/204.01, 379/88.04, 379/203.01, 379/212.01, 379/221.12, 379/207.12, 379/201.01, 370/260, 370/356, 455/416, 455/414.1, 455/519, 455/404.2, 709/206, 709/204, 709/219, 345/758
• US Class Current: 379/202.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/56 Arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities video conference systems H04N7/15

Abstract

Methods and devices establish an area party line for telephone calls to provide a geographically based chat forum via a telephone. One method receives telephone calls at a local call station where the telephone calls may be landline calls from callers serviced by the local call station, wireless phone calls from users who are currently located in proximity to the local call station, and/or long distance calls from callers who have dialed into the local call station using an area code and exchange. Callers provide an indication of an area party line, such as a star code, and the local call station bridges the calls together. Another method receives telephone calls at a central call station, where the telephone calls are directed to the central call bridging station from a local call station, and the central call bridging station bridges the callers together depending upon the local call station that the calls are transferred from. The callers may be local callers, long distance callers, or wireless callers to the local call station.

Claims

1. A method of creating area party lines, the method comprising:

receiving a first telephone call at a first local call station directly over a first telecommunication link, the first telephone call providing an area party line indication, wherein the first telephone call providing the area party line indication comprises dialing at least one digit after the first telephone call was received at the first local call station, the area party line indication corresponding to a geographic area associated with at least one call station;

receiving a second telephone call at a second local call station over a second telecommunication link, the second telephone call providing the area party line indication for the first local call station;

transferring the first telephone call from the first local call station to a central call bridging station based on the area party line indication;

transferring the second telephone call from the second local call station to the first local call station, and from the first local call station to the central call bridging station based on the area party line indication;

bridging the second telephone call with the first telephone call at the central call bridging station to establish a first area party line between the first telephone call and the second telephone call based on the transfer of the first telephone call and the second telephone call from the first local call station, wherein the central call bridging station is configured to accommodate further bridging of calls received subsequent to the first telephone call and the second telephone call to the area party line established between the first telephone call and the second telephone call;

receiving a reassignment indication from a caller in the first area party line; and

in response to receiving the reassignment indication from the caller in the first area party line, bridging the caller from the first area party line to a second area party line.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first telephone call is a landline call, the first local call station is a landline SSP, wherein the second telephone call is a wireless telephone call, the second local call station is a base station, and wherein transferring the wireless telephone call comprises passing the wireless telephone call from the base station through a gateway to the public switched telephone network with an indication of the first local call station, passing the call through the public switched telephone network to the first local call station, and passing the wireless telephone call from the first local call station to the central call bridging station where bridging the second telephone call with the first telephone call occurs based on the transfer from the first local call station.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first telephone call is a landline call, the first local call station is a landline SSP, wherein the second telephone call is a landline telephone call, the second local call station is a landline SSP, and wherein transferring the second telephone call to the first local call station comprises transferring the second telephone call over a long distance network.