The field of the invention is that of telecommunications. More specifically, the present invention relates to a call redirection method implemented in a telecommunication system and a corresponding system.
In a telecommunications system such as the GSM, UMTS or LTE (for “Long Term Evolution”) systems, terminals can communicate with one another by taking out subscriptions with radiotelephone operators. These terminals are generally mobile ones (telephones, laptops, PDAs, . . . ) and each one contains a security element of the SIM or USIM type containing security data able to establish communications. This security data more particularly consists of an IMSI identifier and an encryption key Ki making it possible to authenticate the subscriber with the operator which it has taken out a subscription with. The terminals can also be fixed. The invention also applies to communications between machines (M2M).
A security element may also be in the form of a chip containing an application of the SIM type. This chip can be soldered into the terminal and fulfils the function of the above-mentioned card. Then the UICC is no longer removable from the terminal and will subsequently be called an e-UICC.
A security element generally contains a single subscription, but it has been envisaged to have it support several subscriptions, either taken out with the same operator or taken out with different operators. Then the user may select one subscription among the others, according to his/her geographical position, to the time, to the network coverage available . . . . Let us examine the example of a French user who has taken out a subscription with a French operator, and who often travels abroad, for example to Germany. This user should rather take out a subscription with a German operator too, in order to be able to communicate in Germany without being in “roaming” situation, with respect to the French operator. Once in Germany, the user will switch from his/her subscription with the French operator to his/her subscription with the German operator for example using the man-machine interface of his/her terminal. The same is true for a user who wishes to have two subscriptions in his/her terminal, a professional one and a private one. He/she will then activate his/her professional subscription when going to work and will activate his/her private subscription back home.
The subscription may be automatically changed either on the user's initiative, depending on his/her geographical position (geo-location), or initiated by an external element which controls the switching from one subscription to another.
In the present invention, one or more subscription(s) is/are active and at least one subscription is inactive.
The problem with these multiple subscriptions within a single terminal is that to each subscription corresponds a different call number.
Thus, it is not possible to call a subscriber or to send him/her data (e.g. SMS or MMS) if the corresponding subscription is not active. For example, if a user A has a terminal comprising a security element containing two subscriptions ABO 1 and ABO 2, with the ABO 1 subscription corresponding to a telephone number (MSISDN) +123 and the ABO 2 subscription corresponding to a telephone number +456, the user can be reached at number +123 only if the ABO 1 subscription is active. Similarly, he/she can be reached at number 456 only if the ABO 2 subscription is active. A user B will not be able to call user A at number +123 if the ABO 2 subscription is active in the security element of user A's terminal. Conversely, user B will not be able to call user A at number +456 if the ABO 1 subscription is active in the security element of the user A's terminal. Call here means any attempt to communicate, whether through voice or data.
The same is true for the management of the subscriptions in the security element. A security element is usually managed by an OTA platform that needs to know the subscriber's active telephone number to be able to transmit it data or programs.
The present invention is especially aimed at overcoming these drawbacks.
More specifically, one object of the invention is to provide a method enabling a user B to reach a user A having several subscriptions, with at least one subscription being inactive (one or more subscription(s) can be active).
This object, and others which will be mentioned hereinafter, are achieved by a method according to claim 1.
The invention also relates to a system according to claim 5.
The present invention will be better understood upon reading the following description of a preferred embodiment of the invention given for illustrative and not restrictive purposes, and the appended drawings wherein:
In this embodiment, a first telecommunication terminal 10 includes or cooperates with a security element 11 (a SIM, USIM or e-UICC card, for instance) containing security data corresponding to several subscriptions. Here, three subscriptions ABO 1 to ABO 3 are present in the security element 11. The subscriptions may have been taken out with the same or different operator(s). In
As indicated above, one or more subscription(s) can be simultaneously active and at least one subscription is not active. Here, the ABO 1 subscription only is active, whereas the ABO 2 and ABO 3 subscriptions are inactive.
To each subscription corresponds a call number: the owner of the terminal 10 can be reached at (MSISDN) telephone number +123 thanks to the ABO 1 subscription, at number +456 thanks to the ABO 2 subscription and at number +789 thanks to the ABO 3 subscription.
In the following description, a call number is called an active call number if the corresponding subscription is active (i.e. here +123) and a call number is called an inactive call number if the corresponding subscription is inactive (which is the case for the call numbers +456 and +789).
If the user of a second terminal 20 wants to contact the user of the first terminal 10, he/she must compose +123. Now, the user of the second terminal 20 can not know which subscription is active in the first terminal 10.
To this end, the present invention provides the use of a manager 12 of the security element 11. This manager 12 can communicate with the security element by radio and knows which one is the active subscription (ABO 1) in the security element 11, thanks to one of the three following mechanisms, given as examples:
Since it knows which one is the active subscription in the security element 11, the manager 12 knows that the terminal 10 can be reached through the telephone number +123.
The manager 12 is able to communicate with the operator(s) of the ABO 1 to ABO 3 subscriptions.
According to the invention, during a step 33, the manager 12 transmits to the OP 2 and OP 3 operators (whose subscriptions are not active) information in that the active subscription is the ABO 1 subscription. These operators then redirect the call to the active ABO 1 subscription so that they can retransmit the inactive call numbers (+456 for the OP 2 operator and +789 for the OP 3 operator) to the active call number +123. Thus, if the user of the terminal 20 contacts the user of the terminal 10 at one of these inactive numbers, these will be redirected to the OP 2 or OP 3 operator's network so that the terminal 10 can be contacted at its active number (+123).
The configuration of the system is substantially the same as that of
The difference with respect to the system described while referring to
The invention also relates to a telecommunications system comprising:
The manager 12 comprises means for controlling the activation of one of the subscriptions in the security element 11 and the security element 11 comprises means for confirming the activation of the subscription with the manager 12.
In the event that each one of the subscriptions (ABO 1 to ABO 3) has been taken out with a different operator (OP 1 to OP 3), the manager 12 comprises means for informing the operators whose subscriptions are not active, so that each one can redirect the inactive call number composed by the second telecommunication terminal 20 to the active call number.
The second telecommunication terminal can also be formed by an OTA platform used for managing data or programs included in the active subscriptions.
The present invention integrates a security element comprising several subscriptions into several security elements (UICCs) each one comprising a subscription. As a matter of fact, there is no difference between a terminal comprising a single security element containing several subscriptions and a terminal comprising several security elements (e.g. two SIM cards), each one containing a subscription. A terminal of this type is generally called a “dual slot” because it enables the alternative use of two SIM cards.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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11306639.3 | Dec 2011 | EP | regional |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/EP2012/074871 | 12/7/2012 | WO | 00 |