Mobile communication system with answering service function, network system thereof, and radio communication terminals

A mobile communication system including a plurality of radio communication terminals differing in communication capability and a network for switching between the radio communication terminals to enable communication, said mobile communication system wherein

• said network comprises:
• first storage means for storing the communication capability of each of said radio communication terminals;
• determining means for determining whether a second terminal is in a communicable state when a request to communicate with the second terminal has arrived from a first terminal in said radio communication terminals;
• communication capability selecting means for, when the determining means has determined that said second terminal is in an incommunicable state, selecting communication capability used for communication with the first terminal on the basis of the communication capability the first terminal requesting communication has and the communication capability of the second terminal stored in said first storage means;
• and
• alternative communication control means for receiving message arrived from the first terminal on the basis of the communication capability selected by the communication capability selecting means and storing the received message in second storage means in such a manner that the received message is caused to correspond to said selected communication capability.

A network for switching between a plurality of radio communication terminals differing in communication capability to enable communication, said network comprising:

• first storage means for storing the communication capabilities of each of said radio communication terminals;
• determining means for determining whether a second terminal is in a communicable state when a request to communicate with the second terminal has arrived from a first terminal in said radio communication terminals,;
• communication capability selecting means for, when the determining means has determined that said second terminal is in an incommunicable state, selecting communication capability used for communication with the first terminal on the basis of the communication capability the first terminal requesting communication has and the communication capability of the second terminal stored in said first storage means;
• and
• alternative communication control means for receiving message arrived from the first terminal on the basis of the communication capability selected by the communication capability selecting means and storing the received message in second storage means in such a manner that the received message is caused to correspond to said selected communication capability.

A radio communication terminal including a plurality of multiplexing means for multiplexing different types of information, said radio communication terminal comprising:

• determining means for, when a communication request has arrived from an other-party's communication apparatus, determining whether a user of the radio communication terminal can respond to said communication request;
• selecting means for, when the determining means has determined that the user of the radio communication terminal cannot respond to said communication request, selecting a multiplexing scheme used for communication on the basis of the multiplexing scheme said communication apparatus requesting communication has and the multiplexing scheme the radio communication terminal has;
• answering communication control means for receiving the multiplex message arrived from said communication apparatus requesting communication on the basis of the multiplexing scheme arrived from said communication apparatus requesting communication and storing the received multiplex message in storage means;
• and
• reproducing means for reading the multiplex message from said storage means according to a playback instruction inputted by the user, demultiplexing the multiplex message according to the multiplexing scheme, and reproducing the message.