Personal dial tone service with personalized caller ID

A method, comprising:

• identifying one party to a requested communication service as one of a plurality of subscribers;
• using a virtual office equipment number, assigned to the one subscriber, to retrieve corresponding profile data from stored profile data for the plurality of subscribers;
• providing the communication service over a link of a communication network based at least in part on the retrieved profile data;
• and
• using a portion of the retrieved profile data to provide an identification of the one subscriber over another link of the communication network.

A telecommunication network comprising:

• a central office for processing calls originated over a plurality of communication links, said central office including mass storage containing subscriber service profiles for a plurality of subscribers each having an individually assigned office equipment number;
• and
• a peripheral coupled to the central office, said peripheral including a voice authentication module for analyzing speech of a caller from one communication link to identify the caller as one individual from among the subscribers and provide an office equipment number assigned to the identified individual subscriber to the central office, wherein:
• the central office retrieves one of the subscriber service profiles, which corresponds to the office equipment number assigned to the identified individual subscriber and processes at least one call over a communication link using information from the retrieved profile, and
• the profile information includes at least some data identifying the individual caller for use in caller identification services.

A telecommunication network comprising:

• a plurality of central office switching systems interconnected by trunk circuits, for processing calls originated over a plurality of communication links, each of said central office switching systems including mass storage containing subscriber service profiles for a plurality of subscribers each having an individually assigned office equipment number;
• and
• a peripheral coupled to at least one of the central office switching systems for interacting with a caller to identify the caller as one individual from among the subscribers, said peripheral providing an office equipment number assigned to the identified individual subscriber to one or more of the central office switching systems,
• wherein in response to receipt of the office equipment number, a central office switching system retrieves a corresponding profile and processes at least one call over a communication link using the retrieved profile, the processing of the at least one call including transmission of data from the profile specifically identifying the individual subscriber to a destination station.

A telecommunication network comprising:

• a central office switching system for processing calls originated over a plurality of communication links, said central office switching system including mass storage containing subscriber profiles;
• and
• a peripheral coupled to the central office switching system for interacting with a caller to identify the caller as a subscriber, said peripheral providing a virtual office equipment number assigned to the identified subscriber to the central office switching system,
• wherein in response to receipt of the virtual office equipment number, the central office switching system retrieves corresponding profile information and processes a call using the retrieved profile information, the processing of the call including transmission of data specifically identifying the subscriber to a destination station.

A telecommunication network comprising:

• a plurality of central office switching systems interconnected by trunk circuits, for processing calls originated over a plurality of communication links, each of said central office switching systems including mass storage containing subscriber service profiles for a plurality of subscribers;
• and
• a peripheral coupled to at least one of the central office switching systems during processing of a call from one communication link, said peripheral including a voice authentication module for analyzing speech of a caller from the one communication link to identify the caller as an individual one of the subscribers and provide an instruction to one or more of the central office switching systems based on the identity of the individual subscriber,
• wherein in response to receipt of the instruction, a central office switching system processes the call from the one communication link using one subscriber service profile corresponding to the identified individual subscriber and supplies data representing the identity of the individual subscriber to a terminal device associated with another subscriber involved in the call based on information corresponding to the identified individual subscriber from the one subscriber service profile.

A telephone central office switching system comprising:

• interface units for coupling to a plurality of communication links;
• a switch fabric for providing selective communication connections between the interface units;
• and
• an administrative module for controlling connections provided by the switch fabric, wherein the administrative module comprises:
• mass storage containing subscriber profiles, each of at least some of the subscriber profiles including data representing identity of a specific, associated subscriber,
• a processor for providing control instructions to the switch fabric, and
• a signaling interface for coupling the processor to a signaling link, for communication with an external network node, wherein:
• in response to a virtual office equipment number received via the signaling interface, the processor retrieves a subscriber profile corresponding to the virtual office equipment number from the mass storage, uses the retrieved profile to process a selective connection through the switch fabric between two of the interface units and forwards the data representing identity from the retrieved profile through one of the interface units.