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AssigneesAmerican Telephone and Telegraph Company, AT&T Bell Laboratories
InventorsPatrick J. Marino, Arun N. Netravali
Estimating the term…
There is disclosed a system for providing an economical telephone toll service in which a telephone subscriber selects the economical service by, for example, sending an appropriate signal, and then dials his directory assistance call or other telephone toll call. After the caller's options are determined and typically before signaling for the call is commenced, a recorded-announcement of an aural or visual nature is connected to the subscriber's line, the announcement consisting of at least one advertisement. The advertisements are selected from a databank according to some predetermined technique of selection, which may include any number of factors or features to make the service attractive to subscribers and of a nature to make the service also sufficiently rewarding to advertisers. After the initial delay, usually after the advertising announcement is completed, the toll call and/or directory assistance call is processed as usual but at a reduced rate of charge or with automatic credit being given to the customer's account.
A telephone toll system of the type in which a local telephone station is connected to the telephone network through at least one telephone switching system including means (ANI) for automatically establishing identification of the calling number and means for automatically determining charges for at least one toll service, comprising
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.