Customized, billing controlled call bridging system
AssigneeUnited States Advanced Network, Inc.
InventorsCharles Thomson Richardson, Jr., Kevin Lee Austin, Samuel F. Billingsley, III
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Method and apparatus for providing customized, billing-controlled call bridging services through a bridging node which includes a node interface for connection through incoming and outgoing telephone trunks to a carrier switch of a public switched network, an audio peripheral for recording, playing, and analyzing audio signals, and a node controller for controlling operation of the node interface and the audio peripheral.
Claims6
Method of providing customized, billing-controlled, collect-call bridging services to callers calling from customer telephones, said method comprising the steps of:
- configuring a public switched network to direct calls from customer telephones to first input ports on a first node of a billing-controlled call bridging system;
- receiving an origination number and a destination number through an input port after a caller dials a destination number on a first customer telephone assigned to the origination number;
- generating input port identification data identifying the input port receiving the origination number and destination number;
- analyzing the input port identification data and the origination number to select, initiate, and configure a customized, billing-controlled collect-call bridging application;
- prompting the caller for caller identification information;
- recording the caller identification information;
- calling the destination number through an output port;
- prompting a destination party for acceptance of collect-call charges, including transmitting the caller identification information;
- analyzing any response from the destination party to detect acceptance of collect-call charges;
- and
- bridging the input port to the output port to complete the call upon detection of acceptance of the collect-call charges.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.