Telephonic communications – Audio message storage – retrieval – or synthesis – Call source identification
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-03
2004-10-12
Tsang, Fan (Department: 2645)
Telephonic communications
Audio message storage, retrieval, or synthesis
Call source identification
C379S210010
Reexamination Certificate
active
06804335
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method of providing telephonic services, and in particular, to providing access by a customer to long-distance carriers and information providers and to prompted dialing services. The term “service provider” will henceforth be used to refer to both long-distance service providers and information providers.
There presently exist several methods of accessing a long-distance carrier. One method is the pre-subscription method. In this method, every telephone line has a pre-subscribed long-distance carrier. To use the pre-subscribed carrier, the customer dials 1+the area (or service) code plus seven more digits. This is known as “1+” dialing.
A second method is the use of a CIC (carrier identification code) code. In this method, every carrier has a unique 4-digit CIC code. To reach a desired carrier by means of a CIC code, the customer dials “101”+the CIC code. This enables the customer to use that carrier for a call by dialing 101+CIC code +1+area code, etc.
Another method of accessing a long-distance carrier is the use of a calling card. The customer dials a toll-free number belonging to the desired carrier and charges a call to a calling card or a credit card.
A further method of accessing a long-distance carrier is the use of a collect call. The customer dials a toll-free number belonging to the desired carrier and places a collect call using that carrier.
Similarly, several methods exist of accessing an information provider, including dialing a “900” (or intra-area code equivalent) service code number, dialing an “800” service code number, and dialing a POTS number, including both local and long-distance numbers.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to provide an improved method of accessing service providers for providing telephonic services.
This and other objects of the present invention are achieved in accordance with the present invention wherein a customer calls a toll-free number, hangs up, and is called back by the selected service provider, which then gives the customer a dial tone or other indication that input is expected from the customer. Although a dial-tone is the most common form of an indication to the customer that input is expected, there are other such indications, such as a single tone, and verbal prompts. The term “dialing prompt” will henceforth be used to refer to all forms of indications that input is expected from the customer, including, conventional dial-tone, conventional single tones, conventional verbal prompts, and the improved method of verbal prompts described below.
Typically, the use of a dial-tone means that the customer is to input a destination telephone number, and the use of a single tone means that the customer is to input some other type of information, such as a billing number. The use of verbal prompts has been used to verbally tell the customer which type of information to enter. Under the method of the present invention, a new use of verbal prompts is possible, namely, using prompts to advise the caller from time to time during entry of a dialing sequence exactly where the customer is in that sequence, or what entry a customer must make to complete a call to a desired location or service, or to indicate to the customer that there may have been an entry error. The method of the present invention is known as “Call-Back Dial-Tone”, and the method of providing prompted dialing is known as “Prompted Dialing”.
In accordance with the object of the present invention, the present invention also includes a method for providing telephonic services wherein an access telephone number is provided corresponding to a provider of telephonic services, signaling made to the access number by the customer is received by the provider, a desired dialing sequence to be inputted by the customer is determined, and a prompt of at least one but fewer than all of the digits of the desired dialing sequence is provided to the customer. Prompting is repeated until the dialing sequence is completed by the customer. The desired dialing sequence can be a telephone number, a geographic area code telephone number or a service code telephone number, such as a “900” number, or a dialing code selected from a menu. The prompting can be one which allows a touch-tone input, a dialing input or a verbal input. In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the prompted dialing can be used in conjunction with call-back, wherein the customer is called back before the desired dialing sequence is determined. Alternatively, the customer is called back after determining the desired dialing sequence.
In a typical embodiment of the present invention, a person connects to a telephonic menu or information service from which the caller is given a number to call to reach the desired service. For example, the number can be 1+900+XXX-XXXX, although it could be a regular area code or local number. Since many people cannot remember ten digits, the caller can acknowledge that prompting is desired by an appropriate input from the telephone instrument, by giving a verbal response, or by merely continuing with the process, so that the system can help the person dial by repeating a few digits at a time as the person inputs the number. On a call-back, the person calls, gets a menu, selects the number he or she wants to reach, hangs up and gets called back, and there is a voice at the other end which says, for example, “this is the call-back you requested. You indicated that you wish to reach 900-123-4567. If you wish to reach that number, please dial 1-900 now. If you do not wish to reach that number, please dial or say 5 now.” After the input, or after a time out, the prompt continues and says, for example, “now please dial 123.” This is repeated until the entire dialing sequence is completed. This method allows for error correction, because if the caller does dial the 1-900 but hits 126, the system can detect that and respond accordingly.
From the dialing prompt, the customer can obtain basic telephonic services (e.g., long distance), enhanced services (e.g., speed dialing), or audio services (e.g., entertainment or information provided by information providers). The method of the present invention is the only method whereby a customer can obtain a general dial-tone (i.e., a dial-tone equivalent to the dial-tone provided by a local exchange carrier (LEC) from a long-distance carrier.
The present invention has many advantages for customers and service providers. It allows small long-distance carriers, for example, those that are not facilities-based and therefore not able to become pre-subscribed, or reachable by 101+(CIC code), or have traffic delivered by “0” operators, to compete nationally with large long-distance carriers for long-distance traffic.
The present invention also allows all service providers to compete nationally with large long-distance carriers for “900” traffic. Carriers without the facilities to carry their own “900” traffic must pay high rates to facilities-based carriers to carry “900” traffic.
The method according to the present invention also allows long-distance carriers to lower their costs with respect to their long-distance traffic. In the conventional “1+” call, the long-distance carrier pays both the originating and terminating local exchange carriers (LECs) for handling the call. In the present invention, the long-distance carrier can eliminate the payment to the originating LEC.
The present invention allows fraud control for calls to numbers to which the customer is able to block calling, such as “900” numbers. The reason is that the calling back identifies the calling phone as one to which direct calls can be made, thereby eliminating many of the telephones from which fraudulent long-distance and “900” calls are made, for example, PBX's and pay phones. In addition, although the LECs make available databases of blocked numbers, the databases have errors, and a supposedly blocked call can get through
Chow Ming
Hogan and Hartson LLP
Pilgrim Telephone, Inc.
Schaefer Ira J.
Tsang Fan
LandOfFree
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