User invocation of services in public switched telephone network via parallel data networks

A telephone service management facility for enabling the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to provide improved telephony services to its customers comprising:

• first means interfacing between the PSTN and a communication network external to said PSTN for conducting communications between the PSTN and its customers via equipment other than telephones;
• second means interfacing between said first means and the PSTN for conducting a security check on communications received from said equipment other than telephones for determining if said communications originate from a PSTN customer or a duly authorized agent of a PSTN customer;
• said second means allowing communications from said equipment other than telephones to affect a telephone service delivered to a customer associated with said equipment other than telephones if and only if a prior determination has been made that respective communications are from one of the customer receiving the respective service and authorized agents of that customer;
• and
• wherein said external network is a data communications network, said first means comprises a data server linked to computers used by said PSTN customers via said external network, and said second means comprises a firewall server operative between said data server and elements of said PSTN responsible for automatically administering telephone services within said PSTN;
• and
• wherein said data server operates to communicate with said customer computers using forms-based software that is configured to limit actions which customers can evoke relative to said sensitive internal elements of the PSTN.

A telephone service management facility for enabling the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to provide improved telephony services to its customers comprising:

• first means interfacing between the PSTN and a communication network external to said PSTN for conducting communications between the PSTN and its customers via equipment other than telephones;
• and
• second means interfacing between said first means and the PSTN for conducting a security check on communications received from said equipment other than telephones for determining if said communications originate from a PSTN customer or a duly authorized agent of a PSTN customer;
• said second means allowing communications from said equipment other than telephones to affect a telephone service delivered to a customer associated with said equipment other than telephones if and only if a prior determination has been made that respective communications are from one of the customer receiving the respective service and authorized agents of that customer;
• and
• wherein services provided by the PSTN to its customers are administered by a hierarchical network of telephony application intelligence (TAI) within said PSTN, said TAI network comprising a plurality of separate access points;
• and wherein said first and second means are adapted for interfacing said customers directly, without intervention of human representatives of the PSTN, to a predetermined one of said TAI network access points.

A facility A telephone service management facility for enabling the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to provide improved telephony services to its customers comprising:

• first means interfacing between the PSTN and a communication network external to said PSTN for conducting communications between the PSTN and its customers via equipment other than telephones;
• and
• second means interfacing between said first means and the PSTN for conducting a security check on communications received from said equipment other than telephones for determining if said communications originate from a PSTN customer or a duly authorized agent of a PSTN customer;
• said second means allowing communications from said equipment other than telephones to affect a telephone service delivered to a customer associated with said equipment other than telephones if and only if a prior determination has been made that respective communications are from one of the customer receiving the respective service and authorized agents of that customer;
• and
• wherein said PSTN comprises a hierarchical network of telephony application intelligence (TAI) responsible for administering said customer services, said TAI network comprising a plurality of predetermined access points;
• and wherein said first and second means are connected to databases used by said TAI network, but without direct connection to said control points and without required assistance of human representatives of said PSTN.