Personal reach system with improved paging capabilities

• US 6,268,802 B1
• Filed: 02/18/1997
• Issued: 07/31/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Weber, Roy Philip, Goldman, Shelley B., Foladare, Mark Jeffrey, Silverman, David Phillip
• Primary Examiner(s): Zimmerman, Brian
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dalencourt, Yves
• Application Number:
  US08/801,448
• Time in Patent Office: 1,624 Days
• Field of Search: 340/825.448, 340/825.14, 340/311.1, 455/456, 455/457, 455/458, 455/38.1
• US Class Current: 340/7.2
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 3/1083 Pager locating systems

Abstract

In order to minimize the number of transmitters from which a page is transmitted in a Personal Reach System in which a subscriber is paged to alert him or her of a waiting telephone call, the subscriber'"'"'s last known location, the time at her or she was located there, and the elapsed time since being located there, are used to determine an outer perimeter of the geographic area in which the subscriber is likely to be presently located. A page is then transmitted to the subscriber from those transmitters which cover that geographic area. If the elapsed time is more than a predetermined threshold, during which period the subscriber could have traveled anywhere, a nationwide page, rather than a localized page, is transmitted.

Claims

1. In a paging system which transmits a wireless page message to a subscriber unit from a plurality of geographically distributed transmitters, a method of paging the subscriber unit at a current time comprising the steps of:

determining a location of the subscriber unit at a previous time, the location being derived from an Automatic Number Identifier of an out-of-system telephone station set from which a user of the subscriber unit previously accessed the paging system;

determining an elapsed time between the current time and the previous time;

determining a geographic area within which the subscriber unit is likely to be at the current time, based on said elapsed time and said location of the subscriber unit at the previous time; and

paging the subscriber unit from those transmitters which cover the geographic area within which the subscriber unit is determined to likely be.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the location of the subscriber at the previous time is determined when the subscriber is connected at the previous time to a telecommunications network to which the paging system is connected and the location of the subscriber is determined.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the location of the subscriber at the previous time is determined when the subscriber places a revertive telephone call over the telecommunications network to a personal reach system in response to a previous page.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the location of the subscriber at the previous time is determined when the subscriber places a telephone call over the telecommunications network.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the location of the subscriber at the previous time is determined when the subscriber pays for a transaction using a credit card at the previous time.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein the location of the subscriber at the previous time is determined as a result of the subscriber making a connection through the telecommunications network to the Internet.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein when the elapsed time is greater than a predetermined threshold, the page is transmitted to the subscriber by each of the plurality of transmitters.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the current time together with the elapsed time and the location of the subscriber at the previous time are used to determine the geographic area within which the subscriber is likely to be at the current time.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the predetermined threshold is a function of the location of the subscriber at the previous time.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the predetermined threshold is a function of the elapsed time.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein the predetermined threshold is a function of the previous time.

12. The method of claim 7 wherein the predetermined threshold is a function of the current time.

13. In a personal reach system in which at a current time a subscriber unit is paged with a page message indicating the presence of a waiting telephone call on a telecommunications network and in which, when the user places a revertive call to a network adjunct and is identified to the adjunct, the revertive call and the waiting call are bridged, a method paging of the subscriber unit comprising the steps of:

determining a location of the subscriber unit at a previous time, the location being derived from an identifier of an independent communication device from which a user of the subscriber unit previously made a revertive call;

determining an elapsed time between the current time and the previous time;

determining a geographic area within which the subscriber unit is likely to be at the current time, based on said elapsed time and said location of the subscriber unit at the previous time;

determining from a plurality of geographically distributed paging transmitters which transmit the page messages, the particular paging transmitters that cover the geographic area within which the subscriber unit is determined to likely be; and

transmitting a signal to initiate a page to the subscriber unit from each of the particular paging transmitters that are determined to cover the geographic area within which the user of the subscriber unit is determined to likely be.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the location of the subscriber at the previous time is determined when the subscriber is connected to the telecommunications network at the previous time and the location of the subscriber at that previous time is determined by the telecommunications network.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the location of the subscriber at the previous time is determined when the subscriber places a revertive call in response to a page at the previous time.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein the location of the subscriber at the previous time is determined when the subscriber places a telephone call over the telecommunications network at the previous time.

17. The method of claim 13 wherein the location of the subscriber at the previous time is determined when the subscriber pays for a transaction with a credit card at the previous time.

18. The method of claim 14 wherein the location of the subscriber at the previous time is determined as a result of the subscriber making a connection through the telecommunications network to the Internet.

19. The method of claim 13 wherein when the elapsed time is greater than a predetermined threshold, a signal to initiate a page to the subscriber is transmitted to each of the plurality of paging transmitters.

20. The method of claim 13 wherein the current time together with the elapsed time and the location of the subscriber at the previous time are used to determine the geographic area within which the subscriber is likely to be at the current time.

21. The method of claim 19 wherein the predetermined threshold is a function of the location of the subscriber at the previous time.

22. The method of claim 19 wherein the predetermined threshold is a function of the previous time.

23. The method of claim 19 wherein the predetermined threshold is a function of the elapsed time.

24. The method of claim 19 wherein the predetermined threshold is a function of the current time.

25. In a system in which a subscriber unit is paged to alert a user of the subscriber unit of the occurrence of an event, a method of paging the subscriber unit comprising the steps of:

determining a location of the subscriber unit at a previous time, the location being derived from an Automatic Number Identifier of an out-of-system telephone station set from which a user of the subscriber unit previously accessed the paging system;

determining an elapsed time between the current time and the previous time;

determining a geographic area within which the subscriber unit is likely to be at the current time, based on said elapsed time and said location of the subscriber unit at the previous time;

determining from a plurality of geographically distributed paging transmitters which transmit the pages to subscriber units, the particular paging transmitters that cover the geographic area within which the subscriber unit is determined to likely be; and

transmitting a signal to initiate a page to the subscriber unit from each of the particular paging transmitters that are determined to cover the geographic area within which the subscriber unit is determined to likely be.