Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Special service
Reexamination Certificate
1998-07-17
2001-10-09
Nguyen, Lee (Department: 2683)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Special service
C455S414200, C455S433000, C379S212010
Reexamination Certificate
active
06301473
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates to telecommunication systems and, more particularly, to a method in a radio telecommunications network of notifying a subscriber that a call transfer feature is activated.
2. Description of Related Art
In existing radio telecommunications networks, a mobile subscriber who activates a call transfer feature receives an immediate indication that the feature has been activated. Thereafter, however, the subscriber must remember that the feature is activated. There is no indication, for example, upon subsequent powering up of the mobile station that the call transfer feature is activated. Thus, the feature may be activated while the subscriber is not aware of this fact. This can be very inconvenient, especially when immediate call transfer (or unconditional call transfer) is activated. In this case, calls terminating to this subscriber are transferred to a pre-defined forward-to-number (C-number) without the subscriber's awareness.
In the prior art, U.S. Pat. No. 5,077,789 to Clark and the inter-system signaling specification ANSI-41 (6.9.2 CNIR Interaction with Call Forwarding Unconditional (CFU)) both teach methods of providing an abbreviated alert signal to a subscriber's phone when a call is forwarded to another number. However, these methods do not provide the subscriber with an indication that a call transfer feature is activated as soon as the mobile station is powered up, and for the entire time the mobile station is turned on. With the existing methods, the subscriber is only alerted after he has missed a call. In addition, the existing methods utilize valuable network resources such as paging resources and voice channels to page the mobile station, obtain a response, and send the abbreviated alert signal.
In order to overcome the disadvantage of existing solutions, it would be advantageous to have a method of notifying a subscriber that a call transfer feature is activated whenever the subscriber powers up the mobile station. Such an indication would remain active for the entire time the mobile station is turned on, and would provide the subscriber with the ability to deactivate the call transfer feature prior to having any incoming calls inadvertently transferred. In addition, the method would not utilize network paging resources or voice channels. The present invention provides such a method.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is a method in a radio telecommunications network of notifying a subscriber that a call transfer feature is activated. The method provides a display or a tone to indicate whether or not the call transfer feature is activated whenever the subscriber powers up his mobile station, and for the entire time the mobile station is turned on.
Thus, the present invention is a method of sending a call transfer notification (CTN) to a mobile station (MS) in a radio telecommunications network, the CTN indicating that a call transfer feature is activated. The network includes a serving Mobile Switching Center (MSC) which serves the MS, and a Home Location Register (HLR) which stores a subscriber profile associated with the MS. The method begins by storing in the subscriber profile, a CTN Active parameter that indicates whether or not the CTN should be sent to the MS whenever the MS is powered up. A CTN Type parameter is also stored in the subscriber profile and indicates which type of call transfer feature is activated. When the HLR is notified that the MS has been powered up, the CTN Active parameter is checked in the subscriber profile to determine whether the CTN should be sent to the MS. This is followed by checking the CTN Type parameter in the subscriber profile to determine which type of call transfer feature is activated, and sending the CTN to the MS upon determining that the CTN should be sent to the MS whenever the MS is powered up. The CTN may include an indication of which type of call transfer feature is activated. The CTN may be sent to the MS in a Short Message Service (SMS) display message. If the call transfer feature is deactivated, either by the subscriber or the operator, the MS is notified of this fact, and the CTN indication is removed from the MS display.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5577103 (1996-11-01), Foti
patent: 5579375 (1996-11-01), Ginter
patent: 5657382 (1997-08-01), Tamagawa et al.
patent: 5678195 (1997-10-01), Suikkola et al.
patent: 5711002 (1998-01-01), Foti
patent: 5784442 (1998-07-01), Foti
patent: 5839065 (1998-11-01), Joensuu et al.
patent: 5845207 (1998-12-01), Amin et al.
patent: 5867784 (1999-02-01), Lantto
patent: 5905954 (1999-05-01), Nguyen
patent: 5966653 (1999-10-01), Joensuu et al.
patent: 5978681 (1999-11-01), Bertacchi
patent: WO 97/50237 (1997-12-01), None
patent: WO 98/23099 (1998-05-01), None
Nguyen Thien
Nguyen Viet
Nguyen Lee
Nguyen Simon
Smith ,Danamraj & Youst, P.C.
Telefonaktiebolaget L M Ericsson (publ)
LandOfFree
Call transfer activation indicator in a radio... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Call transfer activation indicator in a radio..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Call transfer activation indicator in a radio... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2589451