Location sensitive mobility telecommunications method

• US 6,026,306 A
• Filed: 10/21/1997
• Issued: 02/15/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Westrich, Robert S., Goldman, Shelley B., Wang, Shaoqing Q., Foladare, Mark Jeffrey, Silverman, David Phillip
• Primary Examiner(s): Urban, Edward F.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Thuan T.
• Application Number:
  US08/955,127
• Time in Patent Office: 847 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456, 455/457, 455/458, 455/459, 455/461, 455/31.2, 455/445, 455/31.3, 379/201
• US Class Current: 455/456.5
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/04 multi-step notification using statistical or historical mobility data

Abstract

A paging service decides whether a subscriber may be paged, or is busy and should not be paged, depending on the subscriber'"'"'s location. The subscriber'"'"'s location is either transmitted by his 2-way pager, or determined by determining the identity of the cell site used to relay the pager'"'"'s signal. The status corresponding to a cell site may be fixed, or may vary with a schedule or subscriber preference information stored in a memory.

Claims

1. A method for operating a mobility telecommunication system, comprising:

receiving a call from a caller for a subscriber in a location sensitive mobility telecommunication device (LMTD);

obtaining in the LMTD location information of a mobile communication device of the subscriber; and

preventing an alert device of the mobile communication device from alerting the subscriber based on information related to the call and the location information of the mobile communication device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining step comprises:

transmitting an inquiry signal to the mobile communication device through at least one cell site; and

receiving in the LMTD a site signal from the cell site in response to the inquiry signal, the site signal including the location information of the mobile communication device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the location information of the mobile communication device includes a subscriber entered status entered by the subscriber.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein if the subscriber entered status is BUSY, then the mobility telecommunication system prevents the alert device of the mobile communication device from alerting the subscriber by not connecting the call to the mobile communication device, and responds to the call with a return message indicating that the subscriber is busy.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein if the subscriber entered status is NOT-BUSY, then the mobility telecommunication system connects the call to the mobile communication device and the mobility communication device alerts the subscriber.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the location information of the mobile communication device does not include a subscriber entered status entered by the subscriber.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

identifying a location based on the site signal;

retrieving a subscriber profile from a memory of the LMTD;

searching the subscriber profile for an entry corresponding to the location and time of call included in the information related to the call; and

responding to the call based on a status in the entry if found in the searching step.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the location corresponds to a cell site identification of the cell site that transmitted the site signal.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein if the status is BUSY, then the mobility telecommunication system prevents the alert device of the mobile communication device from alerting the subscriber by not connecting the call to the mobile communication device and responds to the call with a return message indicating that the subscriber is busy.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising offering features specified in the subscriber profile to the caller.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the features specified in the subscriber profile include call forwarding and voice mailbox.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein if the status is NOT-BUSY, then the mobility telecommunication system connects the call to the mobile communication device and the mobility communication device alerts the subscriber.

13. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving the inquiry signal in the cell site; and

transmitting a site inquiry signal from the cell site.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving the site inquiry signal in the mobile communication device without activating the alert device;

retrieving mobile communication device information from a memory of the mobile communication device; and

transmitting the mobile communication device information in response to the site inquiry signal.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving the mobile communication device information;

generating the site signal, the site signal including cell site information and the mobile communication device information; and

transmitting the site signal to the LMTD.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising generating an intelligent room status, wherein the cell site information includes the intelligent room status.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the intelligent room status is BUSY if one of a podium status is BUSY, a preset status is BUSY, and a number of mobile communication devices that responded to the site inquiry signal exceeds a predetermined number, and the intelligent room status is NOT-BUSY if one of a podium status is NOT-BUSY, a preset status is NOT-BUSY, and a number of mobile communication devices that responded to the site inquiry signal is less than a predetermined number.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the cell site receives a signal containing the mobile communication device information at a signal magnitude, when multiple cell sites receive a signal containing the same mobile communication device information, the LMTD selects a location of a cell site that has a highest signal magnitude that contains the mobile communication device information.