Paging terminal apparatus with page forwarding capability and methodology thereof

Paging terminal apparatus, for use with paging receivers with acknowledge back capability, wherein paging messages for pagers initially failing to acknowledge back may be automatically forwarded to alternate pagers within the system, said terminal apparatus comprising:

• paging controller means;
• entry means for entering information into said paging controller;
• and
• transmitter means, controlled by said pager controller means, for sending paging addresses and associated messages intended therefor to system pagers;
• control means, in said paging controller means, responsive to failure to receive back an acknowledgment from a called pager within a predetermined time period, for sending the intended message to another pager in the system;
• said other pager being determined by a set hierarchy listing of alternate pagers entered into said paging controller means by said entry device.

A method for call forwarding of messages for paging receivers having an acknowledge back capability but failing to effect such acknowledge back upon initial transmission of an address, said method comprising the steps of:

• sending pager addresses to the system paging receivers;
• sending a directed message to a particular pager upon receiving back an acknowledgment from said pager;
• upon failure of the initially called pager to acknowledge back in a predetermined time period, determining another pager to send the intended message to in accordance with a set hierarchy of alternate pagers, and
• sending such message to said alternate pager as determined from the established paging hierarchy.

Paging terminal apparatus, for use with paging receivers with acknowledge back capability, wherein such pagers receiving paging messages may further request the received message also be forwarded to still other pagers in the system, said terminal apparatus comprising:

• means for sending pager addresses and associated messages intended therefor to the system paging receivers,
• said system pagers each having multiple acknowledge back response capability;
• means, responsive to particular ones of an initially called pager,s acknowledge back responses, to further send such message to at least one other system pager,
• said other pager being determined from information included within the terminal apparatus as associated with said initially called pager.

A method for sending messages to system paging receivers, and upon request by a called pager with multiple acknowledge back response capability, to also selectively send the transmitted message to one or more other pagers in the system, said method comprising the steps of:

• sending pager addresses and associated messages intended therefor to the system paging receivers;
• receiving back any one of several acknowledge back responses the caller pager is capable of;
• and
• in response to particular ones of said several acknowledge back responses the called pager is capable of, further sending such directed message to at least one other system pager as determined by information entered into and included within the terminal apparatus as associated with said initially called pager.