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US 6,185,194 B2Granted
System and method for initiating a telephone call utilizing internet initiation
AssigneeZip2
InventorsElon Musk, Aleksandar Dukic
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and method for uniquely combining the best aspects of the Internet and the Public Switched Telephone Network for calling an entity displayed on a monitor. A user provides an input to the computer to initiate a call. The call request data is received at a Web site providing the display, and is relayed over the Internet to a call center. The call center establishes the desired phone connection over the Public Switched Telephone Network.
Claims29
A method of generating a telephone call, comprising:
- receiving, from a Web site, call request data requesting a telephone call between a user and a destination;
- selecting, from a plurality of geographically separate call centers, a call center having a lowest phone rate for the call request data by:
- providing a map database;
- determining latitude and longitude coordinates of the destination of said telephone call from the map database;
- comparing the latitude and longitude coordinates to locations of the plurality of geographically separate call centers;
- and
- comparing a call time for the plurality of geographically separate call centers to a call time charge database;
- transmitting the call request data to the call center;
- and
- initiating the telephone call from the call center using a Public Switched Telephone Network.
7 more elements
A method of establishing a telephone call, comprising:
- establishing a connection from a Web browser to a Web server through the Internet;
- accessing a Web site from said Web browser;
- transmitting data in the form of a Web page from said Web server to said Web browser;
- selecting a phone icon on said Web page with a user input device;
- sending a call request data identifying a user phone number and a party to be called from said Web browser to said Web server;
- determining an appropriate call center from said call request data wherein said appropriate call center has a lowest calling rate for said call request;
- sending a call center call request from said Web server to said appropriate call center;
- initiating a call over a public switched telephone network to said user phone number from said appropriate call center;
- playing a recorded message to said user;
- and
- initiating a call over said public switched telephone network to said party to be called from said appropriate call center.
8 more elements
A system comprising:
- a computer network;
- a service provider server configured to connect to said computer network;
- a user access device configured to connect to said computer network;
- and
- a plurality of call centers configured to connect to said computer network and to a public switched telephone network;
- said service provider server being configured to accept call request data from said user access device over said computer network, select an appropriate call center from said plurality of call centers based on said call request data, and transmit a call request to said appropriate call center over said computer network;
- said appropriate call center being configured to accept call requested data over said computer network from said service provider server and initiate conference calls to said user access device and a designated party to be called over said public switched telephone network.
4 more elements
A computer-implemented method of establishing a communication connection between a first party and a second party using a public switched telephone network (PSTN) and a communication network, the method comprising:
- receiving a call request from the first party via the communication network to establish a communication connection between the first party and the second party;
- determining geographical locations of the first party and the second party;
- determining a call center, from a plurality of call centers, based on the geographical locations of the first party and the second party;
- forwarding the call request to the call center;
- and
- initiating a conference call from the call center between the call center, the first party, and the second party using a PSTN such that the communication connection between the first party and the second party is established.
3 more elements
A computer program product embodied on a computer-readable storage medium for establishing a communication connection between a first party and a second party using a PSTN and a communication network, the computer program product comprising:
- code for receiving a call request from the first party via the communication network to establish a communication connection between the first party and the second party;
- code for determining geographical locations of the first party and the second party;
- code for determining a call center, from a plurality of call centers, based on the geographical locations of the first party and the second party;
- code for forwarding the call request to the call center;
- and
- code for initiating a conference call from the call center between the call center, the first party, and the second party using a PSTN such that a communication connection between the first party and the second party is established.
3 more elements
A communication system comprising:
- a communication network;
- a public switched telephone network (PSTN);
- a first server coupled to the communication network;
- and
- a plurality of call centers coupled to the communication network and to the PSTN;
- wherein the first server is configured to receive a call request from a first party via the communication network to establish a communication connection between the first party and a second party;
- wherein the first server is further configured to determine geographical locations of the first party and the second party, to determine a call center from the plurality of call centers based on the geographical locations of the first party and the second party, and to forward the call request to the call center;
- and
- wherein the call center is configured to initiate a conference call from the call center between the call center, the first party, and the second party using the PSTN such that the communication connection between the first party and the second party is established.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.