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AssigneeAmerican Telephone and Telegraph Company, AT&T Information Systems
InventorsChester A. P. Berry, III, Anna M. Tolaini
Estimating the term…
This invention provides an audible indication to a held party indicating when a call is removed from the hold state. Heretofore, when two parties on a call are in a talk state and a first party puts a second party on hold, the held party must aurally monitor the receiver on the station set for the first party's voice to detect when the talk state is resumed. The voice of the first party provides the only indication that the hold condition has been removed. This requires the held party to monitor the receiver for the duration of the hold state and prevents the held party from easily pursuing any other activities. The subject arrangement overcomes this problem by providing a "ring-ping" signal to the held party when the hold condition is removed. In particular, following the activation of the hold condition by the first party, the held party leaves the receiver off-hook and can then pursue other activities. Call processing software monitors the station set of the first party to detect the removal of the hold condition. In response to the detection of the removal of the hold condition, a "ring-ping" signal (a short burst of ringing) is applied to the hold party's station set to indicate that the call is no longer on hold. The talk state can then resume as soon as the held party retrieves the receiver. The above-described arrangement eliminates the need for the held party to aurally monitor the station set receiver for the duration of the hold condition.
In a switching system in which a call connection has been established between a first station and a second station and wherein a party at said first station has placed said second station in a "hold" state;
In a switching system in which at least two call connections have been established each between a first station and at least one other station and wherein a party at said first station has placed said other stations on said call connections in a "hold" state;
In a switching system in which a conference call connection has been established between a first station and at least two other stations and wherein a conferee at said first station has placed said other stations in a "hold" state;
In a switching system in which a conference call connection has been established between a first station and at least two other stations and wherein a conferee at said first station has placed said other stations in a "hold" state;
In a PBX serving a plurality of stations wherein each of said stations is associated with some specified status on each established connection and where a call connection is established between a first station and a second station and said first station has a non-communicative status indicative of having placed said second station "on-hold", a method of providing notification to a held party at said second station to indicate the termination of a "hold" condition at said first station, said method comprising the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.