Secondary subscriber line override system and method

• US 20030081736A1
• Filed: 11/01/2001
• Published: 05/01/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Net2Phone, Inc. (IDT Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Net2Phone, Inc. (IDT Corporation)
• Inventors: Morris, Joseph
• Granted Patent: US 7,127,043 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/37
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/04 with alarm systems, e.g. fire, police or burglar alarm systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13034 A/D conversion, code compression/expansion
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/1307 Call setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13141 Hunting for free outlet, circuit or channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13389 LAN, internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/66 Traffic distributors

Abstract

A method and system of utilizing a secondary telephone line service, and in one embodiment encompasses analyzing a dialing sequence to convert from utilizing the secondary telephone line service to utilizing a primary telephone line service without the use of a manual override. By referencing a database of numbers, the present invention is able to determine if an outgoing service request is compatible with a preferred interface (e.g., the secondary interface), and, if not, to direct the outgoing service request to another interface (e.g., the primary interface, such as a POTS network).

Claims

1. A system for routing a call between first and second telephone line interfaces depending on a service to be connected to, the system comprising:

a telephone digit detector for detecting and buffering a series of digits received from a telephone line connector;

a telephone number comparator for determining if the buffered series of digits matches a stored telephone number; and

a telephone line switch for directing an outgoing call to (1) the first telephone line interface if the telephone number comparator indicates that the buffered series of digits matches the stored telephone number and (2) the second telephone line interface if the telephone number comparator indicates that the buffered series of digits does not match any stored telephone number.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the stored telephone number comprises an emergency number.

3. The system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the emergency number comprises 911.

4. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the stored telephone number comprises an information number.

5. The system as claimed in claim 4, wherein the information number comprises 411.

6. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the second telephone line interface comprises a Voice-over-IP interface.

7. A method for routing a call between first and second telephone line interfaces depending on a service to be connected to, the method comprising:

detecting and buffering a series of digits received from a telephone line connector;

determining if the buffered series of digits matches a stored telephone number; and

directing an outgoing call to (1) the first telephone line interface if the buffered series of digits matches the stored telephone number and (2) the second telephone line interface if the buffered series of digits does not match any stored telephone number.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the stored telephone number comprises an emergency number.

9. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the emergency number comprises 911.

10. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the stored telephone number comprises an information number.

11. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the information number comprises 411.

12. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the second telephone line interface comprises a Voice-over-IP interface.