Telecommunications – Transmitter and receiver at same station – Radiotelephone equipment detail
Reexamination Certificate
1998-04-29
2001-07-03
Maung, Nay (Department: 2744)
Telecommunications
Transmitter and receiver at same station
Radiotelephone equipment detail
C455S414200, C455S445000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06256515
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to the field of telecommunications. In particular, a call management system is provided for selectively controlling, monitoring and reporting on the use of selected wireless telephones.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
The use of wireless telephones is widespread. Their increasing functionality, decreasing price, and the demand for fast, easy access to voice communications ensure that the popularity of such devices will continue. These advantages, plus their portability and versatility, make them very useful in enabling communication with and among employees or representatives of an organization. For example, salespersons can be in contact with a home office between visits to clients in order to receive the latest price and product information, place orders, etc., or police officers may be issued wireless telephones to use in certain situations in order to leave police radio facilities free for other use. A police department may, for instance, use wireless telephones in place of police radio equipment to prevent others from intercepting radio broadcasts.
Organizations taking advantage of the benefits of wireless communications typically do so by issuing wireless telephones to selected employees. Alternatively, the organization may simply reimburse employees for their acquisition, usage, and/or maintenance costs.
Extensive subsidization of wireless telephone usage within an organization requires some form of management and control, however, lest the cost to the organization become prohibitive. For example, with most wireless telephones all usage is billed—regardless of whether the usage involves an outgoing or incoming call. When the usage is related to the employee's official duties for the organization, the cost is normally to be borne by the organization. However, payment for personal use of an assigned wireless telephone may be the responsibility of the employee if there is no organizational policy to the contrary. An organization may, for example, be willing to permit personal use of a wireless telephone assigned to an employee provided that the employee reimburses the organization for some or all of such use. There is thus a need to determine the type of usage of a subsidized wireless telephone (i.e., official or personal) and to report to the organization on the type and level of use of the telephone.
Controlling the usage of wireless phones by requiring each caller to input an access code or account number in order to dial a telephone number outside the organization has been heretofore unknown. This is because the switch that handles calls from an organization's wireless telephones is typically not owned or operated by the organization and is therefore beyond its control. Instead, calls from the organization's wireless telephones are received and handled by a wireless switching center that is external to the organization. In addition, the switching center simultaneously handles calls from numerous users other than the organization. Controlling, or even reporting, the usage of a subsidized telephone thus requires some method of determining which calls into the switching center involve organization-subsidized telephones. Also, even if outgoing calls from a subsidized wireless telephone could be identified and controlled in this manner, incoming calls would still need to be controlled if they are to be billed as well.
Effective management of its wireless telephones also requires adequate reporting to the organization concerning the telephones' usage. Reported data for each subsidized telephone preferably includes enough information to determine whether each use was for official or personal purposes, plus details such as times and duration of use.
There exists, therefore, a need for a system and method for controlling wireless telephone usage in order to prevent or report unofficial usage and to report or account for official usage.
Besides identifying each call as official or personal in nature, an employee should be able to specify a specific account number to which a call is to be assigned. For each call so assigned, it should be reported to the organization or the employee under the assigned account.
There is therefore also a need in the art for a system and method for assigning a call to or from a specified wireless telephone into one of a plurality of accounts.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the need in the art for means and methods for monitoring and restricting wireless telephone usage, it is an object of the present invention to identify unofficial or unauthorized usage of specified wireless telephones.
It is a further object of the invention to allow full use of specified wireless telephones for official or approved communications.
It is also an object of the invention to provide control of unofficial usage of specified wireless telephones by preventing or restricting such use.
It is a further object of the invention to allow a caller to assign use of a wireless telephone to one of a plurality of accounts.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide for the recording of unofficial usage of specified wireless telephones.
It is still another object of the invention to enable the generation of various types of reports concerning official and unofficial wireless telephone usage.
In accordance with the present invention, a call management center maintains a database concerning wireless telephones that are provided or subsidized by a customer organization. The database includes, for each subsidized telephone, a telephone identification number to uniquely identify the telephone, one or more access codes to identify an employee to which the phone is assigned (e.g., the employee may be assigned both a personal access code and a business access code and/or may be rotated among a plurality of employees), and one or more telephone numbers to which an assigned employee may be connected without restriction. Calls to or from other numbers, however, are to be restricted, prevented, recorded, or merely reported, depending upon the organization's needs and desires.
In an embodiment in which calls placed from wireless telephones provided or subsidized by the organization are to be controlled, outgoing calls from the telephones are routed through a wireless central office or wireless switching center. The telephone identification number of the originating telephone, in the form of a Mobile Identification Number “MIN”) or Electronic Serial Number (“ESN”), is read from the call stream.
When calls to (rather than from) the organization's wireless telephones are to be controlled, the caller's telephone number is determined by the ANI (Automatic Number Identification) or caller identification number—which is also retrieved from the call stream. It can be determined that a call is being placed to a controlled wireless telephone by comparing the destination telephone number to a list of telephone numbers of such controlled wireless telephones.
Based on the wireless telephone's identification number (e.g., MIN or destination number), the wireless central office consults a database of controlled wireless telephones to determine whether use of the wireless phone is controlled (i.e., whether the telephone is provided or subsidized by the organization).
If the wireless telephone is identified as a controlled phone, the call is routed to the call management center over a link between the wireless control office and the call management center. The call management center's database is searched, using the wireless telephone identification number and the telephone number of the other party, to determine whether connection to or from the other telephone number is approved for unrestricted connection. If the other telephone number is listed in the controlled phone's database record (thus indicating the number is approved by the organization), the call is completed in the normal manner.
If, however, the telephone number is not listed in the database record, thus i
Cox Patrick M.
Filliger Paul W.
Huey Christopher A.
Kepler Michael A.
Powell A. Peter
Gelin Jean Alland
Maung Nay
Metro One Telecommunications, Inc.
White & Case LLP
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