Privacy screening service with a bypass code

Details Privacy screening service with a bypass code Privacy screening service with a bypass code

1999-12-08

2003-11-11

Tieu, Benny (Department: 2642)

Telephonic communications

Special services

Service trigger

C379S207110, C379S221090

Reexamination Certificate

active

06647106

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to telephone systems that offer privacy screening to their subscribers, and more specifically to allowing certain callers to by-pass the privacy screening.
2. Background of the Invention
A privacy screening service is a service that allows a subscriber to the privacy screening service to screen incoming calls. The privacy screening service provides information to the called party (in this case, the subscriber to the privacy screening service) that allows the subscriber to make an informed decision as whether or not to answer the call. For example, a subscriber may use the privacy screening service to block all unidentified calls from going through. Private telephone numbers are telephone numbers that block services such as “caller ID” that would otherwise identify the caller to the called party. In telephone systems that offer private numbers and a privacy screening service to its customers, calls from a private number to a subscriber with the privacy screening service cannot be completed, unless the caller authorizes the system to override the privacy of his number. Similarly, a call from an unknown number (e.g., a call from outside the telephone network) would not be completed automatically.
FIG. 1
is a schematic diagram showing the basic architecture of an Advanced Intelligent Network telephone system. The Advanced Intelligent Network System is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,701,301 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,838,774, which are hereby incorporated by reference.
FIG. 1
shows the caller's telephone
101
which is connected via the calling party's voice line
102
a
to its Service Switching Point (SSP)
103
. SSP
103
is connected via voice trunk
102
b
to a second SSP (SSP
104
). SSP
104
is the SSP that services the called party's telephone
105
. In this example, the called party is a subscriber who has subscribed to the privacy screening service. (The called party will be referred to as the “subscriber” as well as the “called party” herein.)
FIG. 1
also shows a Signaling Transfer Point (STP)
106
that services a Service Control Point (SCP)
107
and a third SSP (SSP
108
) that services a Service Node (SN)
109
. SCP
107
has a database
107
a
that contains subscriber information.
STP
106
is a signaling hub that routes packets of data over the common channel signaling network. Common channeling signaling networks are data communications networks laid over the system's switching network that carry data and control messages to and from and among the SSPs, STPs, and SCPs in the network. Signaling System
7
(SS
7
) is the protocol that runs over common channel signaling networks. A common channel signaling network using the Signaling System
7
protocol is often referred to as an SS
7
network. The SS
7
network carries data and control messages to the SSPs in the telephone network. SCPs are powerful fault-tolerant computers, e.g., AT&T Star Server FT Model 3200 or AT&T Star Server FT Model 3300 computers (these and more current computers such as the Advantage P200 and Advantage 4P200 models are presently available from Lucent Technologies). SCPs are “intelligence centers” with access to applications databases that enable the network to deliver advanced services such as caller ID, privacy screening and call forwarding. The SCPs also execute service package applications (SPAs) that deliver the advanced services. SNs are physically generally similar to SCPs, but include voice and Dual Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) signal recognition circuits, voice synthesizers, and voice recognition and digit collection capabilities. The operators of the telephone network can program their SNs to manage data, to respond to calls and to route calls as specified by the telephone network, and to collect digits from a caller or subscriber. The SN's voice circuits can also be programmed to provide a voice response (e.g., to play pre-selected announcements) to callers and to perform voice recognition. SNs can also be programmed to respond to input from the callers by, e.g., further routing the call.
Key components of the AIN, such as the SCPs and STPs are generally provided in redundant pairs, such that the network does not experience an interruption while one of the components is down for repairs or servicing.
As shown in
FIG. 1
, STP
106
controls communications between SSPs
103
,
104
and
108
and SCP
107
. The SSPs are connected to the caller's and the subscriber's telephones and to each other via voice lines
102
a
and
102
c
and via voice trunks
102
b
and
102
d
. The SSPs communicate with STP
106
and SCP
107
via SS
7
data links
110
a
,
110
b
,
110
c
and
110
d
. SN
109
is connected to SSP
108
by an Integrated Service Digital Network (ISDN) Basic Rate Interface (BRI) line
111
.
When the caller places a call to the subscriber, the call is routed by SSP
103
to SSP
104
. Because the subscriber has subscribed to the privacy screening service, that call (like all calls to that subscriber's number) triggers a “termination attempt trigger” or TAT. In response to the TAT, SSP
104
issues a query. The query goes up to SCP
107
via STP
106
asking for directions as to how the call should be terminated. The query includes the following information: the subscriber's telephone number (in the called party field), the calling party's telephone number (in the calling party field), the calling party's presentation restriction indicator (also in the calling party field) and the trigger criteria type (indicating the service for which the query is intended).
SCP
107
checks the presentation indicator in the calling party number field of the query. If presentation of the caller's number is not restricted, i.e., if the caller's number is public, SCP
107
sends back a response instructing SSP
104
to terminate the call, and to supply the caller's telephone number (and if the subscriber has subscribed to a higher level of service such as caller name delivery—also referred to as caller ID deluxe—the caller's name and telephone number). In that case, SSP
104
terminates the call, i.e., completes the call, supplying the subscriber with the caller's number (and possibly also with the caller's name).
However, if the number of the calling party is unknown, the prior art system asks the calling party to record his or her name before routing the call to the subscriber. Routing the call to the subscriber generally requires a complex sequence of calls, queries and responses, thus burdening the network with additional traffic. Frequent callers, such as the subscriber's close friends or family members (or the subscriber himself or herself, calling home), who call either from private numbers or from unknown numbers, would be unnecessarily screened each time they made calls to the subscriber. Such callers may find the unnecessary delays of having to listen to and respond to the privacy screening announcements very inconvenient.
Furthermore, a separate problem occurs with privacy screening when the subscriber is calling his own number (whether from a public, private or unknown telephone) to check or retrieve messages from his or her answering machine. Because the subscriber is not at home to accept the call, the call does not go through, and the privacy screening service prevents the subscriber from retrieving his or her messages. Privacy screening may also prevent the subscriber from calling home, when calling from a private or unknown telephone.
Privacy screening systems are described in U.S. patent applications Ser. Nos. 09/372,746 and 09/372,676 which are both incorporated herein by reference.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is a system and method that allows callers to bypass the subscriber's privacy screening by entering a bypass code, thus avoiding the announcements described above, and allowing the subscriber to retrieve messages from his or her answering machine. The subscriber must provision a password (or pers

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