Provision of group services in a telecommunications network
AssigneeOrange Personal Communication Services Limited
InventorsBaljit Bamrah, Michael Beeston, Ben Suffolk, William Dowie, Giles Knibb
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and system for providing group services in a telecommunications network. Groups of subscribers can be created and each group associated with its own telephone number. A member of a group can communicate with others in that group using a group service and the telephone number associated with the group. In one aspect, a number of different, and separately processed, group services are provided which can be accessed using a common group telephone dialing number.
Claims26
A method for providing group services to subscribers in a telecommunications network, including:
- receiving a first service request in a first communications mode, said first service request including said first telephone dialing number;
- routing said first service request to a first destination selected on the basis of said first telephone dialing number;
- in response to receipt of said first service request at said first destination, selecting said first group of participants on the basis of said first telephone dialing number;
- in response to selection of the first group, providing a first group service to the selected first group of participants;
- receiving a second service request in a second communications mode, which communications mode is different to said first communications mode, said second service request including the first telephone dialing number;
- routing said second service request to a second destination selected on the basis of said first telephone dialing number;
- in response to receipt of said second service request at said second destination, selecting a second group of participants on the basis of said first telephone dialing number;
- and
- in response to selection of the second group, providing a second group service to the selected second group of participants.
A method for providing a group service to subscribers in a telecommunications network, including:
- storing data indicating a set of telephone dialing numbers which are intended to be allocated for use in the provision of group services;
- conducting a group set up procedure for defining a service group, said set up procedure including:
- a) receiving a group set up request;
- b) allocating a first telephone dialing number from said set of numbers to said group;
- c) storing group member data identifying a plurality of members of said group;
- and
- d) identifying said first telephone dialing number to one or more of said plurality of members of said group.
A method for providing a group service to subscribers in a telecommunications network using a group messaging system, including:
- at said group messaging system, receiving a request message from a message sender, the request message including a calling line identity for the message sender;
- and
- in response to receiving the request message, copying said request message to form group messages, and transmitting said group messages to a plurality of members of the selected group of recipients, the group messages including a calling line identity whereby messages are routed to said group messaging system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.