TELEPHONE NETWORK SYSTEM AND METHOD
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Systems for and methods of delivering telephone calls using the combination of a data channel and a voice channel are disclosed. A data channel connection with the telephone handset may provide pre-call information used to set up incoming and outgoing calls which are ultimately connected using a voice channel. Use of the pre-call information may permit the same handset to be associated with multiple secondary telephone numbers from which calls appear to have been made and to which calls appear to have been placed.
0 Citations
28 Claims
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1-3. -3. (canceled)
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4. A method of providing telephone service, comprising:
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automatically storing electronic information that indicates an association of a secondary telephone number and a primary telephone number with a telephone handset in a computer memory associated with a server; automatically associating a unique bridge telephone number with each of a plurality of contact telephone numbers in the computer memory; automatically transmitting information that indicates the association of the unique bridge telephone number with each of a plurality of contact telephone numbers to the handset via the data channel; automatically associating each primary telephone number and bridge telephone number pairing with a corresponding secondary telephone number and contact telephone number pairing in the computer memory; receiving, at a switch associated with the server, an outgoing call from the handset to the bridge telephone number via a voice channel; receiving, at the server, information from the switch indicating the outgoing call is being made to the bridge telephone number from the primary telephone number; receiving, at the switch, information from the server directing the switch to;
(a) connect the outgoing call to a contact telephone number associated with the primary telephone number and bridge telephone number pairing, and (b) identify the telephone number from which the outgoing call is being made as the secondary telephone number. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24)
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5. A method of providing telephone service, comprising:
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enrolling a telephone handset in a telecommunications system having a server and a switch, wherein said telephone handset is associated with a primary telephone number in a database associated with the server and switch; electronically transmitting an application from the server to the telephone handset via a data channel responsive to telephone handset enrollment, wherein said application is;
adapted to send instructions to have one or more secondary telephone numbers referenced to the primary telephone number in the database, adapted to present visually perceptible call processing rules on the telephone handset, and adapted to transmit information indicating a selection of call processing rules from the telephone handset to the server;electronically receiving instructions from the telephone handset via the data channel to reference the one or more secondary telephone numbers to the primary telephone number; storing telephone handset information, including the primary telephone number and the one or more secondary telephone numbers referenced to the primary telephone number, in the database; electronically receiving instructions from the telephone handset via the data channel to store user selected call processing rules for the telephone handset in the database, wherein the user selected call processing rules include instructions to route calls over a voice channel in a manner that will indicate that the calls are made to or from the one or more secondary telephone numbers; electronically transmitting information to the telephone handset via the data channel, said information being adapted to cause a pre-call information to be displayed on the telephone handset responsive to initiation of an outgoing call using the one or more secondary telephone numbers or an incoming call to the one or more secondary telephone numbers; electronically receiving, from the telephone handset via the data channel, call handling information indicating a user selected call processing rule to be used to process the outgoing or incoming call; and automatically handling the outgoing or incoming call based on the call handling information. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26)
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14-17. -17. (canceled)
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21. (canceled)
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22. (canceled)
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27. (canceled)
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28. (canceled)
Specification