Methods and systems for call interruption services
AssigneeAT&T Corp.
InventorsJennifer H. Chen, Paul J. Fellingham, Robert Sayko
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods and systems are provided that can automatically facilitate busy line validation (BLV) and emergency interrupt (EI) services with the aid of various sensors and systems that can automatically determine the status of a given phone-line, and further provide a menu of services to a calling party. A calling party that encounters a busy signal during an attempt to call a called party can validate the status of the called line without the intervention of a human operator. If the called line is currently used for a voice conversation, as opposed to a modem or facsimile call, then the calling party can optionally interrupt the ongoing conversation with the permission of the called party.
Claims15
A method for processing a busy call, comprising:
- receiving a busy line validation request from a calling party for a communication terminal;
- and
- automatically determining a status condition associated with a communication path linking said communication terminal;
- and
- providing an indication of the status condition to the calling party in response to the busy line validation request.
A method for processing a call, comprising:
- receiving an interrupt request from a calling party directed to a communication terminal;
- automatically determining the nature of a communications path associated with the communication terminal;
- and
- if the communication carries a voice communication, providing an interrupt message to the communication terminal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.