Obviating Mobile Airtime Minutes For Business Telephone Calls
AssigneeAT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
InventorJason Cook
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Systems and methods are described that provide a phantom mobile telephone number that is assigned by the mobile telephone service provider, for business customers and/or customers subscribing to the service. Upon receipt of the phantom mobile telephone number at the mobile service provider's internal call routing system, the call is associated with a preexisting landline number assigned to a business. The mobile telephone call is forwarded to the preexisting landline telephone number and is not charged airtime minutes.
Claims20
A method for completing a mobile telephone call comprising:
- receiving, at a mobile switching center of a mobile telephone service provider, a mobile telephone call directed to a phantom mobile telephone number assigned to a business, the call being from a mobile telephone having a service subscription with the mobile telephone service provider;
- determining that the phantom telephone number is in a phantom telephone number database;
- responsive to the phantom mobile telephone number being in the phantom telephone number database, determining a landline telephone number associated with the phantom mobile telephone number;
- responsive to determining the landline telephone number associated with the phantom mobile telephone number, switching the received mobile telephone call directed to the phantom mobile telephone number to the landline telephone number associated with the phantom mobile telephone number;
- completing the mobile telephone call to the business;
- and
- responsive to the phantom mobile telephone number being in the phantom telephone number database, not debiting airtime minutes related to the mobile telephone call from the service subscription of the mobile telephone.
A tangible computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer readable instructions for completing a mobile telephone call, wherein execution of the computer readable instructions by a processor causes the processor to perform operations comprising:
- receiving, at a mobile switching center of a mobile telephone service provider, a mobile telephone call directed to a phantom mobile telephone number assigned to a business, the call being from a mobile telephone having a service subscription with the mobile telephone service provider;
- determining that the phantom telephone number is in a phantom telephone number database;
- responsive to the phantom mobile telephone number being in the phantom telephone number database, determining a landline telephone number associated with the phantom mobile telephone number;
- responsive to determining the landline telephone number associated with the phantom mobile telephone number, switching the received mobile telephone call directed to the phantom mobile telephone number to the landline telephone number associated with the phantom mobile telephone number;
- completing the mobile telephone call to the business;
- and
- responsive to the phantom mobile telephone number being in the phantom telephone number database, not debiting airtime minutes related to the mobile telephone call from the service subscription of the mobile telephone.
A system comprising a processor and tangible computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer readable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations for completing a mobile telephone call via a mobile telephone service provider, comprising:
- receiving a mobile telephone call directed to a phantom mobile telephone number assigned to a business, the call being from a mobile telephone having a service subscription with the mobile telephone service provider;
- determining that the phantom telephone number is in a phantom telephone number database;
- responsive to the phantom mobile telephone number being in the phantom telephone number database, determining a landline telephone number associated with the phantom mobile telephone number;
- responsive to determining the landline telephone number associated with the phantom mobile telephone number, switching the received mobile telephone call directed to the phantom mobile telephone number to the landline telephone number associated with the phantom mobile telephone number;
- completing the mobile telephone call to the business;
- and
- responsive to the phantom mobile telephone number being in the phantom telephone number database, not debiting airtime minutes related to the mobile telephone call from the service subscription of the mobile telephone.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.