Telephonic communications – Special services – Service trigger
Reexamination Certificate
1998-04-09
2001-01-23
Hudspeth, David R. (Department: 2741)
Telephonic communications
Special services
Service trigger
C379S216010
Reexamination Certificate
active
06178238
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to apparatus and method for allowing telephone subscribers to use speed dialing even when they are not calling from their home telephone.
Problem
Speed calling is a service which allows telephone customers to call some of their most frequently dialed numbers by specifying only a one or two digit number. The service has become quite popular and is likely to become even more popular as ten digit dialing becomes more and more prevalent.
People who use speed calling, after a while, tend to forget the number of the party associated with ones of their speed dialing numbers because they no longer use the full number when they dial that party. This is fine as long as callers are calling from their home telephone, but if they are traveling, the switch connected to their phone when they are away from home has no record of their speed dialing list, and so cannot complete a speed dialed call to the right party.
Solution
We have recognized that a problem of the prior art, therefore, is that there is no satisfactory way of using speed dialing when not connected to the caller's home switch. The above problem is solved, and an advance is made over the prior art in accordance with our invention wherein when a caller makes a calling card type of call, the switch serving that call identifies the caller using the caller's card number, and uses that identification to obtain the caller's speed calling list which will allow the serving switch to identify the destination of a speed calling call, and to establish a connection to the appropriate terminating number. Since many of the calls that people make when they are away from their home telephone are calling card calls, this arrangement advantageously allows speed calling to be utilized with a minimum of caller inconvenience even when the caller is away from his/her home telephone.
In accordance with one preferred embodiment of the invention, the calling card data base maintains an up-to-date speed calling list for all the customers whose calling cards are served by that data base. With this arrangement, when the calling card data base is accessed in order to authenticate the calling card and check whether that calling card is allowed to make a call, the identity of the destination is, provided along with the authentication information so that the serving switch for the calling card call can arrange to have the call completed. In accordance with another embodiment of Applicants' invention, the calling card data base which contains the home telephone number corresponding to the calling card provides that home telephone number to the calling card serving switch, which then queries the home switch to obtain either the speed calling list, or the specific speed calling entry corresponding to the speed calling number dialed by the caller. Advantageously, the second embodiment avoids the necessity for storing speed calling lists twice, but delays the call setup because of the time required to make the query of the home switch.
In accordance with another aspect of Applicants' invention, if the caller uses a credit card instead of a calling card (e.g., Master Card instead of an A T & T calling card), then the query of the credit card data base returns the directory number of the caller which can then be used for querying the data base of the home switch.
In accordance with another aspect of Applicants' invention, a caller using a calling card or credit card and a special indication, such as # or *, may specify that the call is to be completed to the caller's home station.
For services such as call A T T, which use extensive prompts, a prompt may also be used to obtain the caller's home telephone number in order to identify the home switch so that a query of that switch may be made in order to obtain the caller's speed dialing list.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4802199 (1989-01-01), Lange et al.
patent: 4899373 (1990-02-01), Lee et al.
patent: 5222120 (1993-06-01), McLeod et al.
patent: 5555290 (1996-09-01), McLeod et al.
patent: 5577110 (1996-11-01), Aquino
patent: 5703942 (1997-12-01), Pinard et al.
Bozek Barbara Ann
Turner James Lee
Hudspeth David R.
Lucent Technologies - Inc.
Ulrich Werner
Zintel Harold
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