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AssigneeBritish Telecommunications plc
InventorsDavid E. Hughes, John C. Lee
Estimating the term…
If an attempt by a first user (3) to contact another party (6) fails, a callback server (1) sets a flag (246). The callback server (1) monitors terminals that have such flags set (25) and is arranged to transmit an alert (27) to the calling party (3) when the called party (6) next becomes available. However, if at the time when the called party (6) becomes available, the calling party (3) is himself no longer available, being now switched off or busy, an additional flag (243) in the store (2), indicative of activity by the calling party (3), prevents a callback alert from being generated until the monitoring process (25) can obtain availability indications (263, 266) in respect of both parties (3, 69) simultaneously. Availability may be determined by factors such as available bandwidth or terminal capabilities. A callback may be initiated when a predetermined number of called parties become available to participate in a conference call.
A telecommunications system providing, a callback facility having means for detecting an attempt made by a first party to make a call of a predetermined type to one or more other parties, means for detecting a failure of said call attempt, means for monitoring each party to the call attempt to determine whether they meet criteria indicating that they are capable of participation in a call of the type attempted, and means to generate a notification to the first party when the first party and one or more of the other parties meet the capability criteria.
A method of operating a telecommunications system providing a callback facility in which, in the event of failure of a call attempt of a predetermined type being made by a first party to one or more other parties, each party to the call attempt is monitored to determine whether they meet criteria indicating that they are capable of participation in a call of the type attempted, and a notification is sent to the first party when the first party and at least one of the other parties meet the capability criteria.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.