TELEPHONE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM, A METHOD OF DELIVERING CONTENT TO A CALLING PARTY AND A METHOD OF DISTRIBUTING INFORMATION TO A CALLING PARTY

Abstract

A telephone communications system, a method of delivering content to a calling party and a method of distributing information to a calling party. In one embodiment, the telephone communications system includes: (1) a master subsystem configured to store ringback information including content and application rules for the ringback information and (2) a trunk interface subsystem coupled to the master subsystem and configured to perform call processing and apply at least a portion of the ringback information to at least one call-in-progress according to the application rules.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention is best understood from the following Detailed Description when read with the accompanying FIGUREs. Reference is now made to the following descriptions taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a system level diagram of an embodiment of a Master System component of the present invention operating in an environment for application of the principles of the present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates a system level diagram of an embodiment of a Trunk Interface Subsystem of the present invention operating in a wireline network environment and constructed according to the principles of the present invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates a system level diagram of an embodiment of a Trunk Interface Subsystem of the present invention operating in a wireless network environment and constructed according to the principles of the present invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates a system level diagram of an embodiment of the present invention constructed according to the principles of the present invention in a multivendor and/or multiple carrier environment;

FIG. 5 illustrates a diagram of software components of the embodiment of Master System 100 of FIG. 1 constructed according to the principles of the present invention;

FIG. 6 illustrates a diagram of software components of an embodiment of the Trunk Server of FIGS. 2 and 3 constructed according to the principles of the present invention;

FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart of an embodiment of a Trunk Server Call Processing routine carried out according to the principles of the present invention;

FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart of an embodiment of a Audio File Control routine for commercial applications carried out according to the principles of the present invention;

FIG. 9 illustrates a flowchart of an embodiment of a Calling Party Input routine carried out according to the principles of the present invention; and

FIG. 10 illustrates a flowchart of an embodiment of an Audio Improvement and Optimization process carried out according to the principles of the present invention.

Claims

1. A telephone communications system, comprising: a master subsystem configured to store ringback information including content and application rules for said ringback information; anda trunk interface subsystem coupled to said master subsystem and configured to perform call processing and apply at least a portion of said ringback information to at least one call-in-progress over any one of a group of telecommunications lines according to said application rules.

2. The telephone communications system as recited in claim 1 wherein said master subsystem and said trunk interface subsystem are components of an intelligent peripheral system associated with said telephone communications system.

3. The telephone communications system as recited in claim 1 wherein said trunk interface subsystem operates in a wireless network.

4. The telephone communications system as recited in claim 1 wherein said master subsystem is configured to operate with multiple trunk interface subsystems.

5. The telephone communications system as recited in claim 4 wherein each of said multiple trunk interface subsystems is associated with a different carrier network.

6. The telephone communications system as recited in claim 4 wherein each of said multiple trunk interface subsystems is associated with a different vendor with each vendor having a unique subscriber interface.

7. The telephone communications system as recited in claim 1 wherein said group of telecommunications lines is associated with a number or address selected from the group consisting of: an 800 number,a 900 number,a number representing a hunt group,a toll trunk group connection number,a DID number,a VoIP number, andIP multimedia subsystem (IMS) port.

8. The telephone communications system as recited in claim 1 wherein said ringback information further includes a ringback tone and said content is applied to said at least one call-in-progress instead of a ringback tone.

9. The telephone communications system as recited in claim 1 wherein said content is an advertisement.

10. The telephone communications system as recited in claim 9 wherein said advertisement is based on a location of calling party of said call-in-progress.

11. The telephone communications system as recited in claim 1 wherein said content is a message selected from the group consisting of: an SMS message,a MMS message,a multimedia message,a video message,an audio message,a text message, andan Instant Messages (IM).

12. The telephone communications system as recited in claim 1 wherein said content is viewable to a calling party of said call-in-progress and is selected from the group consisting of: a video selection,a video clip,a video stream, andan animation.

13. The telephone communications system as recited in claim 1 wherein said group of telecommunications lines is associated with a business and said trunk interface subsystem applies said content to said call-in-progress, said content associated with said business and selected from the group consisting of: an information message,a business jingle,audio recognizably associated with said business, andadvertisements.

14. The telephone communications system as recited in claim 1 wherein said trunk interface subsystem applies said content after a voice path is completed to a calling party of said call-in-progress.

15. The telephone communications system as recited in claim 1 wherein said trunk interface subsystem applied said content to said call-in-progress and is configured to receive input based on said content from a calling party of said call-in-progress.

16. The telephone communications system as recited in claim 1 wherein said trunk interface subsystem applies said content to said call-in-progress, said content including audio that is processed based on a media employed with said call-in-progress.

17. The telephone communications system as recited in claim 1 wherein said master subsystem and said trunk interface subsystem are modular subsystems that are geographically distributed.

18. A method of delivering content to a calling party, comprising: receiving an incoming telephone call on a trunk line from a calling party;retrieving application rules associated with said trunk line;applying content, based on said application rules, to a calling path established with said calling party.

19. The method as recited in claim 18 wherein said trunk line is associated with a business and said content is an advertisement for said business.

20. The method as recited in claim 18 wherein said content is applied while said call is still in-progress.

21. A method of distributing information to a calling party, comprising: delivering ringback content to a calling party while a call is in-progress;receiving input from said calling party based on said ringback content; anddistributing information to said calling party based on said input.

22. The method as recited in claim 21 wherein said input is at least one DTMF signal.

23. The method as recited in claim 21 wherein said information is distributed while said call is still in-progress.

24. The method as recited in claim 21 wherein said input is received while said call is still in-progress.

25. The method as recited in claim 21 wherein said information is a coupon and said coupon is distributed to said calling party using a method selected from the group consisting of: SMS,MMS,WAP,an Instant Messages (IM),e-mail, andpostal mail.