Cost-Conscious Telecommunications Terminal
AssigneeAvaya Technology Corp.
InventorsSandra R. Abramson, Stephen M. Milton
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and apparatus are disclosed for routing calls over an organization's private network of private branch exchanges. In particular, when a member of the organization (e.g., an employee, etc.) places a call from his or her affiliated off-premises telecommunications terminal (e.g., cell phone, etc.), the call is automatically routed to its destination through at least a portion of the private network of private branch exchanges when doing so reduces the cost of the call. In the illustrative embodiment, the call routing is performed automatically and transparently via software on the affiliated terminals (i.e., employees' cell phones) and on the organization's private branch exchanges.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- receiving at a telecommunications terminal an input for placing a first call to a destination D;
- and
- placing a second call, in response to said input, from said telecommunications terminal to a first of a plurality of associated private branch exchanges;
- wherein a call from said telecommunications terminal to the first private branch exchange incurs no more cost than a call from said telecommunications terminal to any other of said plurality of associated private branch exchanges.
A method comprising receiving at a data-processing system a call C that is placed at time t by a telecommunications terminal, wherein:
- (i) when said telecommunications terminal is connected to a network via a first entry point at time t, said data-processing system is a first of a plurality of associated private branch exchanges;
- and
- (ii) when said telecommunications terminal is connected to said network via a second entry point at time t, said data-processing system is a second of said plurality of associated private branch exchanges.
A method comprising receiving at a data-processing system a call C that is placed at time t by a telecommunications terminal, wherein:
- (i) when said telecommunications terminal is connected to a first network at time t, said data-processing system is a first of a plurality of associated private branch exchanges;
- and
- (ii) when said telecommunications terminal is connected to a second network at time t, said data-processing system is a second of said plurality of associated private branch exchanges.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.