Method and apparatus for programming guestroom telephones

A remotely programmable hotel telephone system comprising:

• an industry standard analog hotel telephone having a two wire communication link for bi-directional voice communication and data transmission;
• the hotel telephone including
• a handset and a plurality of speed-dial keys;
• a plurality of memory locations operatively associated with the speed-dial keys to store speed-dialing data corresponding to predetermined telephone numbers;
• a controller;
• a call recognition circuit operatively coupled to the controller;
• a first modem operatively coupled to the controller;
• a computer remotely located from the hotel telephone;
• a second modem operatively coupled to the computer, the first modem and the second modem configured to facilitate communication between the computer and the hotel telephone;
• the computer configured to automatically call the hotel telephone and establish communication with the hotel telephone over the two-wire communication link;
• said communication being established when the call recognition circuit detects that the call from the computer has not been answered for a predetermined amount of time;
• the computer configured to transmit speed-dial data over the two-wire communication link to the hotel telephone during said communication;
• and
• the controller causing the received speed-dial data to be stored in the memory locations so that the hotel telephone is programmed with new or additional speed-dial data corresponding to the plurality of speed-dial keys;
• wherein both speed-dial data and said voice communication are transmitted over the same two-wire communication link.

A programmable telephone system comprising:

• providing an industry standard analog a guestroom telephone having a two wire communication link for bi-directional voice communication and data transmission;
• providing a computer remotely located from the guestroom telephone;
• automatically placing a call by the computer to the guestroom telephone to establish communication between the computer and the guestroom telephone;
• determining by the guestroom telephone when the call has not been answered for a predetermined amount of time;
• after the determination that the call has not been answered for the predetermined amount of time, establishing communication between the guestroom telephone and the computer, and the guestroom telephone entering into a programming mode;
• transmitting by the computer speed-dial data over the two-wire communication link to the guestroom telephone during said communication, wherein the guestroom telephone is programmed with data corresponding to the received speed-dial data;
• and
• terminating said communication between the computer and the guestroom telephone after the guestroom telephone is programmed with the data, wherein both said speed-dial data and said voice communication are transmitted over the same two-wire communication link.