Telephonic communications – Special services – Locating using diverse technology
Reexamination Certificate
1998-01-29
2001-05-29
Tsang, Fan (Department: 2642)
Telephonic communications
Special services
Locating using diverse technology
C379S110010, C379S112030, C379S157000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06240172
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to techniques for remotely reconfiguring telephone sets. More particularly, this invention relates to remote reconfiguration methods for feature-function telephone sets.
Telephone companies are continually introducing special services as well as upgrading existing services provided over the telephone. For example, some telephone companies offer services that enable the subscriber of the service to determine the telephone number of the person calling. By using feature-function telephones provided by telephone companies, users are able to access various special services (e.g., caller identification, voice mail, mail box, etc.).
Generally, a feature-function telephone comprises function-keys in addition to keys generally present on the keypad, i.e., 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0,*, and #. Alternatively, a predetermined combination of keys on the keypad can be used to represent a function-key that is used to access a special service. This predetermined combination is established by telephone companies and may vary from company to company.
Typically, users need to buy or rent feature-function telephone sets or attachments to be coupled to existing telephones from their respective telephone companies in order to access special services. These feature-function telephone sets include special function programs that correspond to special services a user wishes to access. For example, a user subscribing to the caller identification feature offered by a telephone company needs to buy or rent a feature-function telephone or a separate unit which is to be connected to an existing telephone, which enables the user to use the caller identification service offered.
With a continual increase and change in special services provided by telephone companies, the user needs to buy or rent different feature-function telephones or telephone attachments to be able to use new services. Moreover, because services vary from one telephone company to another, there is an additional need to buy or rent new feature-function telephones every time a user moves to a location with a different service provider that does not recognize the special function programs provided by the user's previous provider.
Subsequently, telephone companies need to order different feature-function telephones or different attachments for existing telephones for users subscribing to different services. In turn, telephone manufacturers need to manufacture different feature-function telephones for various telephone companies.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a feature-function telephone capable of being remotely reconfigured, thereby allowing a user access to new or changed services without having to buy or rent different feature-function telephones or telephone attachments.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a feature-function telephone capable of requesting and receiving special function programs from a telephone company, thereby allowing said feature-function telephone to access various special services.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a remote reconfiguration method for feature-function telephones that allows a user access to new or changed services without having to buy or rent different feature-function telephones or telephone attachments.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
These and other objects of the invention are accomplished in accordance with the principles of the present invention by providing a feature-function telephone with an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) and a loading program. When a user tries to use a special function for the first time, the loading program recognizes that the EEPROM does not have the corresponding special function program. The telephone thus sends a reconfiguration request to the telephone central office, which in response reconfigures the user's feature-function telephone.
As part of the reconfiguration process, the user's feature-function telephone receives the special function program the user had requested. The special function program received is subsequently stored in the EEPROM for current as well as later use by the user. The user may experience a slight delay the first time the special function programs are accessed, but thereafter, because the special function program is stored in an EEPROM provided with the user's feature-function telephone, the user does not experience delays in succeeding uses of the special function programs. In this manner, a user's feature-function telephone may store several special function programs that may be accessed by the user.
Upon receiving a special function program, the user's feature-function telephone sends the telephone central office the corresponding special function code and proceeds to carry out the user's request. In the event the user moves to an area serviced by a different telephone company that does not recognize the special function code sent by the user's feature-function telephone to the telephone central office, that telephone central office will initialize the reconfiguration process described above.
Further features of the invention, its nature and various advantages, will be more apparent from the accompanying drawings and the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.
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patent: 5461666 (1995-10-01), McMahan et al.
patent: 5631954 (1997-05-01), Evans et al.
patent: 5761288 (1998-06-01), Pinard et al.
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Bui Bing
Fish & Neave
Lucent Technologies - Inc.
Mohan Brajesh
Tsang Fan
LandOfFree
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