Telephone call processing
AssigneeData Connection Limited
InventorsMartin Taylor, Stephen Barnes
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed embodiments allow telephony services of different types to be provided by a telephone company at a service platform for telephone calls received at a local telephone exchange belonging to the telephone company, but which does not itself support services those different types of services. Additional embodiments allow for disabling a subscriber-configurability feature for a service of a first service type on the local exchange so as to prevent or inhibit a subscriber from configuring a setting which may interfere with services provided on the service platform.
Claims24
A method of providing services to a plurality of subscribers in a telecommunications network, the subscribers each having subscriber equipment, a main dialing number and a local exchange with which each of the main dialing numbers is associated, the services being of different types including a first service type and a second service type, each of the services of the first service type being supported by and having one or more subscriber-configurability features on the local exchange and each of the services of the second service type not being supported by the local exchange, the method comprising:
- setting a call forwarding function at the local exchange for incoming calls directed to a main dialing number for a first subscriber, the call forwarding function, when set, forwarding the calls to a service platform separate from the local exchange;
- triggering a first service of the second service type at the service platform for at least some incoming calls forwarded to the service platform by the call forwarding function;
- forwarding at least some incoming calls from the service platform using an alternate dialing number for the first subscriber back to the local exchange;
- directing incoming calls using the alternate dialing number for the first subscriber from the local exchange to the subscriber equipment for the first subscriber;
- and
- reconfiguring the local exchange for the first subscriber, the reconfiguring disabling a subscriber-configurability feature on the local exchange for a first service of the first service type, for the main dialing number for the first subscriber.
A method of providing services to subscribers in a telecommunications network, the subscribers each having subscriber equipment, a main dialing number and a given local exchange with which each of the main dialing numbers is associated, the method comprising:
- setting a local exchange to forward incoming calls directed to the main dialing number of a subscriber;
- receiving an outgoing call request from first subscriber equipment associated with the subscriber;
- in response to receipt of the outgoing call request, creating an incoming call using an alternate dialing number for the subscriber, the incoming call being directed towards subscriber equipment associated with the subscriber by the local exchange;
- creating an outgoing call according to the outgoing call request;
- and
- bridging the incoming and outgoing calls.
A method of providing services to subscribers in a telecommunications network, the subscribers each having subscriber equipment, a main dialing number and a given local exchange with which each of the main dialing numbers is associated, the method comprising:
- setting a local exchange to forward incoming calls directed to the main dialing number of a subscriber to a service platform separate from the local exchange;
- triggering one or more services for at least some incoming calls for the subscriber at the service platform;
- forwarding at least some incoming calls from the service platform using a first alternate dialing number for the subscriber back to the local exchange;
- directing at least some of the incoming calls using the first alternate dialing number from the local exchange to the subscriber equipment for the subscriber;
- directing at least some of the incoming calls using the second alternate dialing number from the local exchange to the subscriber equipment for the subscriber.
A computer readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon, which when executed by a processor, cause a computing device to perform a method of providing services to subscribers in a telecommunications network, the subscribers each having subscriber equipment, a main dialing number and a given local exchange with which each of the main dialing numbers is associated, the method comprising:
- setting a local exchange to forward incoming calls directed to the main dialing number of a subscriber;
- receiving an outgoing call request from first subscriber equipment associated with the subscriber;
- in response to receipt of the outgoing call request, creating an incoming call using an alternate dialing number for the subscriber, the incoming call being directed towards subscriber equipment associated with the subscriber by the local exchange;
- creating an outgoing call according to the outgoing call request;
- and
- bridging the incoming and outgoing calls.
A computer readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon, which when executed by a processor, cause a computing device to perform a method of providing services to a plurality of subscribers in a telecommunications network, the subscribers each having subscriber equipment, a main dialing number and a local exchange with which each of the main dialing numbers is associated, the services being of different types including a first service type and a second service type, each of the services of the first service type being supported by and having one or more subscriber-configurability features on the local exchange and each of the services of the second service type not being supported by the local exchange, the method comprising:
- setting a call forwarding function at the local exchange for incoming calls directed to a main dialing number for a first subscriber, the call forwarding function, when set, forwarding the calls to a service platform separate from the local exchange;
- triggering a first service of the second service type at the service platform for at least some incoming calls forwarded to the service platform by the call forwarding function;
- forwarding at least some incoming calls from the service platform using an alternate dialing number for the first subscriber back to the local exchange;
- directing incoming calls using the alternate dialing number for the first subscriber from the local exchange to the subscriber equipment for the first subscriber;
- and
- reconfiguring the local exchange for the first subscriber, the reconfiguring disabling a subscriber-configurability feature on the local exchange for a first service of the first service type, for the main dialing number for the first subscriber.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.