Telephony system for smart card usage
AssigneeQwest Communications Int'l., Inc.
InventorTheresa A. Clark
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An improved public telephone system for providing telephony service access. In particular, the improved public telephone provides for telephony service access responsive to the use of any of a plurality of types of smart cards, each of the plurality of types of smart cards corresponding with a different one of a plurality of financial institutions. Such enhanced access is provided through the utilization of a plurality of security access modules, each of the plurality of security access modules corresponding with a different one of the financial institutions.
Claims20
A public telephone for providing telephony service access responsive to the use of any of a plurality of types of smart cards, each of said plurality of types of smart cards corresponding with a different one of a plurality of financial institutions and having a corresponding, data-containing microchip embedded therein, comprising:
- a plurality of security access modules for enabling access to data in said microchips in each of said plurality of types of smart cards;and
- a transceiver for interfacing with said microchips embedded in each of said plurality of types of smart cards, wherein said tranceiver sequentially interconnects with a number of the plurality of security access modules until a corresponding security module is identified which provides for accessing a particular one of said plurality of types of smart cards.
A method for providing telephony service access at a public telephone responsive to the use of any of a plurality of types of smart cards, each of said plurality of types of smart cards corresponding with a different one of a plurality of financial institutions and having a corresponding, data-containing microchip embedded therein comprising:
- providing said public telephone with a plurality of security access modules for accessing data in microchips embedded in a corresponding plurality of types of smart cards;
- scanning the data-containing microchip through use of a transceiver device;
- sequentially establishing a connection with a number of the plurality of security access modules until a corresponding security access module is identified;
- and
- utilizing said corresponding security access module to access data in a microchip embedded in a given smart card.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.