Emulation of private branch exchange behavior
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- (a) receiving at a telecommunications terminal an input for placing a call to a first private branch exchange, wherein a telephone number M of said telecommunications terminal(i) is not in the address space of said first private branch exchange, and(ii) is mapped to a telephone number N in the address space of said first private branch exchange;
(b) placing, in response to said input, a call from said telecommunications terminal to a second private branch exchange whose address space does not contain M and does not contain a telephone number to which M is mapped; and
(c) receiving at said telecommunications terminal, in response to said call, a signal from said second private branch exchange in accordance with a profile associated with said telephone number N.
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0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus and methods are disclosed for use by organizations that have PBXs at a plurality of sites. The invention pertains to cell phone calls from an to his or her “home” private branch exchange. For example, an employee who works at the Chicago branch office might call the Chicago office'"'"'s PBX to invoke a feature such as setting up call forwarding, retrieving voice mail, etc. In the illustrative embodiment, such calls might be automatically and transparently directed to another PBX when it is advantageous to do so (e.g., for the purposes of security, reducing toll charges, because of unavailability of a particular PBX, etc.) Factors that might be used to determine whether to re-direct a call and to which PBX to re-direct a call include the day and time of the call, the network that the cell phone is currently connected to, etc.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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(a) receiving at a telecommunications terminal an input for placing a call to a first private branch exchange, wherein a telephone number M of said telecommunications terminal (i) is not in the address space of said first private branch exchange, and (ii) is mapped to a telephone number N in the address space of said first private branch exchange; (b) placing, in response to said input, a call from said telecommunications terminal to a second private branch exchange whose address space does not contain M and does not contain a telephone number to which M is mapped; and (c) receiving at said telecommunications terminal, in response to said call, a signal from said second private branch exchange in accordance with a profile associated with said telephone number N. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A method comprising:
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(a) receiving at a telecommunications terminal, at time t1, a first input for placing a call to a first private branch exchange, wherein a telephone number M of said telecommunications terminal (i) is not in the address space of said first private branch exchange, and (ii) is mapped to a telephone number N in the address space of said first private branch exchange; (b) placing a call C1 from said telecommunications terminal to said first private branch exchange in response to said first input; (c) receiving at said telecommunications terminal, in response to said call C1, a signal from said first private branch exchange in accordance with a profile associated with said telephone number N; (d) receiving at said telecommunications terminal, at time t2, a second input for placing a call to said first private branch exchange; (d1) determining whether to direct the call instead to a second private branch exchange; (e) placing, in response to said second input, a call C2 from said telecommunications terminal to the second private branch exchange whose address space does not contain M and does not contain a telephone number to which M is mapped; and (f) receiving at said telecommunications terminal, in response to said call C2, a signal from said second private branch exchange in accordance with said profile. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method comprising:
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(a) determining by use of a first signal whether it is advantageous for a wireless telecommunications terminal to direct a call to a first private branch exchange, wherein the determination is made in response to an input at said wireless telecommunications terminal for placing a call to a telephone number D that is in the address space of said first private branch exchange, and wherein a telephone number M of said wireless telecommunications terminal (i) is not in the address space of said first private branch exchange, and (ii) is mapped to a telephone number N in the address space of said first private branch exchange; and (b) determining by use of a second signal whether it is advantageous for the wireless telecommunications terminal to direct a call to a second private branch exchange, wherein the determination is made in response to the input at said wireless telecommunications terminal for placing a call to said telephone number D, and wherein D is not in the address space of said second private branch exchange. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification