Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Emergency or alarm communication
Reexamination Certificate
1998-09-16
2001-06-26
Hunter, Daniel (Department: 2684)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Emergency or alarm communication
C455S410000, C455S412100, C455S414200, C455S039000, C455S039000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06253071
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to automatically controlled matrix switching and manipulation in telephone systems or the like and, more particularly, to automatic transfer of facility information associated with a caller's premises from the matrix system to a remote location requiring such information.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
In response to a request received at a prior art telephone company business office from a prospective subscriber for full and permanent telephone service, information relating to the prospective subscriber is conventionally obtained orally by a service representative. Since the prospective subscriber does not know specific facility information (i.e. facility assignment numbers for facilities serving the prospective subscriber's premises), the service representative must send an order, prepared from the request for permanent service, to other locations to obtain the required facility information in order to establish permanent service. The prior art overcame the need for obtaining facility information from other locations by leaving the cable pair, central office and line terminating card, and telephone number connected to a disconnected line of a previous subscriber, so that a new subscriber can retain the same known facility information from the previous subscriber. The association between a calling line and facility information is determined via automatic number identification (ANI) whereby the calling line telephone number (i.e., in this case the telephone number of the previous subscriber) is automatically inserted into the dial pulse stream of a call during routing of the call over telephone lines.
In order to automate servicing requests for telephone service, our copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/408,831 and U.S. Pat, No. 5,456,608 disclose a cross-connect matrix and a method and apparatus for remotely placing jumper pins within the matrix to establish cross-connections between cable pairs and central office telephone lines in order to provide temporary and permanent telephone service to prospective subscribers. Also disclosed is a “soft dial tone” feature whereby a prospective subscriber at a premises lacking full telephone service but connected to a cross-connect matrix (e.g., from installation for a previous subscriber occupant of the premises) is provided with limited telephone service sufficient only to place telephone calls to an emergency center (i.e., 911 emergency center), the telephone company business office to request permanent telephone service, or other locations designated by the telephone company. Specifically, a soft or limited access dial tone line is connected to the matrix instead of to the telephone switching mainframe in order for the matrix system to selectively establish the proper connection and provide such limited service. However, neither of the aforementioned disclosures provide a way to automatically associate and verify the exact address, location and facility information of a prospective subscriber.
Further, the prior art determination of the association between facility information and the calling line telephone number has several disadvantages. The determination is ineffective if the previous subscriber transfers his/her telephone number to a new location. Further, there is no way to automatically associate and verify the exact address location and facility information of a prospective subscriber. Moreover, the service representative is required to verify the facility information by means of time consuming research of facilities and thereafter arrange for technicians from a central office to associate the calling line telephone number with the facility used to make the request for permanent service, thereby increasing time, labor and cost of the process.
OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for automatically transmitting the address, facility information and other related data required to establish full and permanent service, directly and automatically, to the service representative at a telephone company business office.
It is another object of the present invention to verify an association between facilities at a prospective subscriber's premises and a subscriber calling line by automatically transmitting facility information, during a call requesting service, to a service representative at a telephone company business office to permit display of information related to the subscriber's calling line at the time the call is answered.
Yet another object of the present invention is to automatically transmit address, facility information and other relevant data to a telephone company business office, emergency center, or repair/maintenance service center to permit a plurality of service representatives to selectively receive data applicable to the call being answered.
Still another object of the present invention is to verify address and facility information by collecting, formatting and transmitting such information, along with the calling line telephone number, via a wireless telephone or paging network to an appropriate telephone company business office, emergency center, or repair/maintenance service center location for comparison with a calling line telephone number received from conventional telephone switching equipment.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for identifying a specific soft dial tone line carrying either a prospective subscriber's call to a telephone company business office or an emergency center, or a service personnel member's call to a repair/maintenance service center.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for processing telephone company credit card calls from premises not yet having telephone services enabled.
According to the present invention, automatic transfer of facility information to a remote location is accomplished by a matrix system at a remote site establishing a connection to provide limited telephone service (i.e., “soft dial tone”) to a prospective subscriber or a service personnel member located in the field and connected via a handset to a cable pair whose facility information is unavailable. The matrix system also identifies the matrix x-y coordinates (i.e., the row and column within the matrix for establishing the connection are identified in substantially the same manner as described in the copending Ser. No. 08/408,831 application) associated with a connection, to a limited service cable pair, established to provide the limited telephone service to the prospective subscriber or service personnel member. The identified x-y coordinates correspond to a designation of the particular cable pair used for the connection. The identified cable pair designation can be used as a key to-access calling facility information such as the address, distribution cable pair, binding post number, cross-connection information, address of cross-connection box, feeder cable pair number, and previous subscriber telephone number, stored in a database local to the matrix system. The previous subscriber telephone number is not actually needed since the matrix system of the present invention utilizes a soft dial tone line and has an established telephone number for the soft dial tone line used for the connection. The matrix system monitors the prospective subscriber's or service personnel member's telephone activity, and when the prospective subscriber, after going off-hook and receiving “soft” dial tone, desires to make a telephone company credit card call by dialing zero, the matrix system transfers the prospective subscriber's call to an operator in order for further processing. In response to detecting dialing of a telephone number of the telephone business office, emergency center or repair/maintenance service center, the matrix system retrieves, from a local look-up table, routing and protocol information of a
Hard Douglas G.
Kennedy Bryan K.
CON-X Corporation
Hunter Daniel
Woldetatios Yemane
LandOfFree
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