System, method, and software program product for tracking call failures on a wireless phone

• US 8,929,883 B2
• Filed: 11/26/2012
• Issued: 01/06/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Baciu, Assaf, Pandya, Hetal, Stone, Kevin, Winarsky, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Zewari, Sayed T
• Application Number:
  US13/685,554
• Publication Number:
  US 20130078992A1
• Time in Patent Office: 771 Days
• Field of Search: 455/405, 455/425, 455/67.11, 455/423, 455/422.1, 455/445, 455/550.1
• US Class Current: 455/423
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/18 wireless networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2227 Quality of service monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic

Abstract

A system, method and software application track call failures on a wireless phone. A software application on the phone monitors outbound calls made on the phone to determine whether or not a call fails. In one embodiment, such monitoring is done only for a select period of time (e.g., the initial few seconds when the phone is attempting to connect to a call to the wireless communication carrier'"'"'s network), and, in an alternate embodiment, such monitoring is done for the duration of the call. If a call fails, the software application stores information related to the call. Examples of such types of information include the time the call failed, the location of the phone at call failure, and identification information for the phone. The stored call information is then sent to the wireless communication carrier to enable the carrier to assess network quality.

Claims

1. A method for tracking call failures on a cellular phone, the method comprising:

monitoring on a cellular phone outbound calls made on the phone;

determining on the phone whether a call failure for an outbound call occurs only prior to the call being connected to the cellular communication carrier'"'"'s network;

in response to determining that a call has failed prior to the call being connected to the cellular communication carrier'"'"'s network, storing information relating to the call failure on the phone; and

sending the information to a communication carrier that provides cellular telecommunication services for the phone, wherein the information sent to the carrier includes a percentage or number of outbound calls over a time interval that have been successfully or unsuccessfully connected to the carrier'"'"'s network and wherein such percentage or number data is organized by cell ID to enable the carrier to identify the cells in the carrier'"'"'s network that fail the most.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the information is sent to the cellular communication carrier after each call failure.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the information for each call failure is accumulated for failed calls occurring over a time interval and, after such time interval, the accumulated information is sent to the cellular communication carrier.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the information stored includes information related to the phone'"'"'s location at the time of call failure, wherein such information is obtained from a GPS application running on the phone.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the information stored also includes one or more of the time of the call failure, the number dialed by the user, and the cell ID data for the phone.

6. A software program embodied on a non-transitory computer-readable medium on a phone that, when executed by a processor on the phone, enables the processor to perform the following method:

monitoring on a cellular phone outbound calls made on the phone;

determining on the phone whether a call failure for an outbound call occurs only prior to the call being connected to the cellular communication carrier'"'"'s network;

in response to determining that a call has failed prior to the call being connected to the cellular communication carrier'"'"'s network, storing information relating to the call failure on the phone; and

sending the information to a communication carrier that provides cellular telecommunication services for the phone, wherein the information sent to the carrier includes a percentage or number of outbound calls over a time interval that have been successfully or unsuccessfully connected to the carrier'"'"'s network and wherein such percentage or number data is organized by cell ID to enable the carrier to identify the cells in the carrier'"'"'s network that fail the most.

7. The software program of claim 6, wherein the information stored includes information related to the phone'"'"'s location at the time of call failure.

8. The software program of claim 7, wherein the information stored also includes one or more of the time of the call failure, the number dialed by the user, and the cell ID data for the phone.

9. A cellular phone for tracking call failures, comprising:

a processor;

a memory device operatively coupled to the processor;

a call data module, implemented in software stored in the memory device and executed by the processor when the phone is in operation, that monitors information related to calls on the phone, including, for each call, the status of the call and the location of the phone at the time of the call;

a call progress evaluation module, implemented in software stored in the memory device and executed by the processor when the phone is in operation, that receives information related to calls from the call data module, including status and phone location information, and stores information related to calls that failed only prior to the call being connected to a cellular communication carrier'"'"'s network; and

a messaging module, implemented in software stored in the memory device and executed by the processor when the phone is in operation, that sends call failure information stored by the call progress evaluation module to the cellular communication carrier, wherein the information sent to the carrier includes a percentage or number of outbound calls over a time interval that have been successfully or unsuccessfully connected to the carrier'"'"'s network and wherein such percentage or number data is organized by cell ID to enable the carrier to identify the cells in the carrier'"'"'s network that fail the most.