Call redirection system

A method for use in establishing a telephone call, said method comprising the steps of:

• receiving a call for a called party at a switch of a telephone network, said call being placed to a telephone number having an attribute that defines it as a translatable number (translatable telephone number);
• requesting routing instructions for said call, by said switch, from a network control point when it is determined by said switch that said call is being placed to a translatable telephone number;
• requesting by said network control point, from a two-way paging system, the particular area, served by at least two telephones, in which a two-way paging device associated with said called party when it is determined by said network control point that said call is being placed to a translatable telephone number that is subscribed to a two-way paging redirection service;
• receiving at said network control point the requested particular area;
• retrieving information stored in said network control point on behalf of said called party that associates a call treatment with said particular area;
• transmitting from said network control point instructions corresponding to said call treatment associated with said particular area to said switch routing;
• receiving said routing instructions at said switch;
• and
• routing said call according to said received routing instructions.

Apparatus for routing a telephone called placed to a number associated with a called party, based on the likely location of the called party, said apparatus comprising:

• a memory containing call treatment entries for the called party, where each entry associates a call treatment specification with a predefined area and where the call treatment specification of the entry of at least some of the predefined areas includes an instruction to route the call to a telephone in the predefined area having a number other than the number;
• means for receiving a telephone call for said called party;
• means for determining within which of said areas, if any, said called party is likely to be located;
• means for retrieving said defined call treatments stored in associated with said determined area, if any, for said called party;
• and
• means for initiating the processing of said call according to said retrieved defined call treatment if a call treatment is retrieved in said retrieving step.

Apparatus for use in a telephone system made up of at least two interlinked telephone networks to complete a caller's telephone call made to a number associated with a called party at one of a plurality of geographically dispersed telephones each having a number other than said number associated with the called party, some of said telephones being grouped into at least two service areas, each of said service areas having (i) at least two of said telephones and (ii) a two-way paging receiver that communicates information with a paging coordinating system over communication facilities that are independent of the links connecting said telephones to said telephone system, said apparatus comprising:

• means for receiving and holding said telephone call;
• means for obtaining from said paging coordinating system the one of said areas in which a pager of said called party is located;
• means for determining a call treatment specified by said called party for processing calls when said called party is located within said obtained area;
• and
• means for processing said call according to said determined call treatment.

A method for routing a telephone call to a party having an associated telephone number, based on the likely location of the called party, said method comprising the steps of:

• storing information supplied by said called party to establish associations between:
• (i) predefined areas, each of said areas being served by telephones, and (ii) information defining call treatments, which information, at least for some of said areas, includes an instruction to route the call to one of the telephones in the area having a telephone number other than said associated telephone number;
• then receiving a telephone call for said called party;
• then determining within which of said areas, if any, said called party is likely to be located;
• then retrieving, using said stored information establishing associations, call treatment information that is stored in association with said determined area, if any, for said called party;
• and
• then initiating the processing of said call according to said call treatment defined by said retrieved call treatment information when call treatment information is retrieved in said retrieving step.