Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Zoned or cellular telephone system
Reexamination Certificate
1997-11-20
2001-02-06
Trost, William G. (Department: 2744)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Zoned or cellular telephone system
C455S404200, C455S415000, C379S045000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06185426
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to telecommunications systems and methods for providing caller information, and specifically for a technique for providing information regarding the location of the calling party.
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTS OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
Currently, a party receiving a call can have access to the identity of the party initiating the call as well as the directory number of the party initiating the call. For example, subscriber features such as CallerID™ allow the recipient of a call to view the calling directory number and the identity of the subscriber who was assigned the calling directory number on a visual display.
Despite the advances in caller identification, the called party does not have immediate access as to the caller's location. At present, the location can only be determined by reference to the calling party's directory number. For example, the area code and first three digits of a directory number (in North America) identify the switch serving the calling party. However, the location of a calling party using a mobile phone, such as a cellular or car phone, could not be located because the same calling directory number can originate a call from, possibly, anywhere in the world. Furthermore, having the called party determine the switch serving the calling party would require a database which cross-references the location of all the switches with the directory numbers served. The costs associated with building and maintaining such a database would prove to be impractical for most recipients of a call. Determining the location using the calling directory number would also require the recipient of a call to perform a query of the database. A call recipient with only minimal technical and computer training may not possess the skills to query a database.
Joyce, et. al., “System and Method for Identifying the Location of a Wireless Terminal”, EP 0 783 235 A2, have proposed a way to provide a modified area code and telephone exchange number for calls to location-based service centers. One drawback to Joyce's proposal is that the proposal not only fails to provide the identity of the calling party, but, by modifying the area code and telephone exchange number of the calling party, the terminating switch is unable to determine the identity of the calling party under the existing methods. Joyce's proposal also does not disclose or suggest a way for determining the location information from the originating switch, and instead relies on the base station to provide the location information. Thus, another drawback of Joyce's proposal is that modifications are required at each base station.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a way for a call recipient to determine the location of a calling party.
It is also an object of the present invention to minimize, at the called party end, the amount of equipment to receive location information.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to a system and method for providing a called party with an approximate location of a calling party by receiving, at an originating switch, a call from the calling party, determining, at the originating switch, the approximate location of the calling party, and transmitting, from the originating switch, the approximate location of the calling party to the called party. The present invention is also directed to a telecommunications system for forwarding the location of a calling party which includes an originating terminal, an originating switch, connected to the originating terminal, for determining the approximate location of the calling party, and a receiving terminal which receives the approximate location of the calling party. The present invention is also directed to a router for forwarding the approximate location of a calling party, which includes a routing database, means for determining the approximate location of the calling party from the routing database, and transmitting means for transmitting the approximate location of the calling party to the called party. The invention is also directed to a method for providing a called party with the approximate location of a calling party by receiving, at an originating switch, a communication from an originating terminal, determining the approximate location of the calling party, concatenating the location of the calling party with the identity of the calling party, and transmitting the location and identity of the calling party to the called party.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5467381 (1995-11-01), Peltonen et al.
patent: 5519760 (1996-05-01), Borkowski et al.
patent: 5596625 (1997-01-01), LeBlanc
patent: 5727057 (1998-03-01), Emery et al.
patent: 5771283 (1998-06-01), Chang et al.
patent: 5873040 (1999-02-01), Dunn et al.
patent: 5875401 (1999-02-01), Rochkind
patent: 195 20 632 A1 (1995-06-01), None
patent: 0 647 076 A1 (1994-10-01), None
patent: 0 783 235 A2 (1997-07-01), None
Alperovich Vladimir
Valentine Eric
Ericsson Inc
Jenkens & Gilchrist
Trost William G.
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