1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a method for enabling a person to use their mobile phone to setup a call between a near land-line phone (which the person will utilize instead of the mobile phone) and a called party's phone.
2. Description of Related Art
Referring to
In another scenario, assume the mobile phone 102 is located in a public network A (in this example an international network) and is used to make an outbound call 112 to the land-line phone 106 which is located in a public network B (in this example a home network). The user of mobile phone 102 would be charged a “high” price for making a roaming international mobile call to the land-line phone 106. In contrast, if the user had used a land-line phone instead of the mobile phone 102 to make the international call then they would not have been charged for mobile roaming plus they would have been charged a much “lower” price.
In yet another scenario, assume the mobile phone 102 is located in a public network A (in this example an international network) and is used to make a conference call 114 to the land-line phone 106 which is located in a public network B (in this example a home network) and to the enterprise phone 108 which is associated with an enterprise switch 116 (e.g., private branch exchange (PBX) 116) that is located in a private network C. In this case, the user of mobile phone 102 would be charged a “high” price and double minutes for making a roaming international mobile conference call to both the land-line phone 106 and the enterprise phone 108. In contrast, if the user had used a land-line phone instead of the mobile phone 102 to make the conference call then they would not have used twice the minutes plus they would have been charged a much “lower” price.
Of course, there are many other scenarios which have not been discussed herein in which the user of the mobile phone 102 would be charged a relatively “high” fee for making an outbound call and/or receiving an inbound call. In contrast, it is usually relatively inexpensive for a user to use a land-line phone rather than their mobile phone 102 to make calls both nationally and internationally. Thus, there has been in interest in reducing the costs associated with using the mobile phone 102 by enabling a user of the mobile phone 102 to take advantage of today's price structure that is associated with land-line phone calls. One service that addresses this need is known as Cellular Extension and is used today by businesses to help them reduce the mobile costs associated with their employees using the company's mobile phones. A brief explanation describing the known Cellular Extension service is provided next with respect to
Referring to
An advantage of this service is that the voice connection 214 between the PBX 206 and the land-line phone 210 is not a mobile call and as such is not charged as being a mobile call. However, the user of the mobile phone 202 is still charged for using minutes and possibly roaming (if the public network A is not their home network or is an international network) while they use the voice connection 204 for the duration of the call to the land-line phone 210. To address this drawback, Sonamobile Inc. has introduced a service known as Call Master which enables a person to use their mobile phone to setup a call between a near land-line phone (which the person will later utilize instead of their mobile phone) and a called party's phone. A brief explanation describing the known Call Master service is provided next with respect to
Referring to
More specifically, the user of the mobile phone 302 would use a graphical user interface (GUI) and possibly a menu in their mobile phone 302 to send the telephone number of the mobile phone 308 over the data channel 304 to the server 305. In addition, the user of the mobile phone 302 would use the GUI and possibly the menu in their mobile phone 302 to send the telephone number of a convenient phone 311 (which is typically a land-line phone 311 that they will use to talk with a person associated with mobile phone 308) over the data channel 304 to the server 305. Generally, the user would interface with their phone directory in the mobile phone 302 to select and send the telephone numbers of the destination mobile phone 308 and the convenient phone 311 over the data channel 304 to the server 305 (typically 1-2 Kb of bandwidth on the data channel 304 would be used to send this information to the server 305).
At this point, the server 305 would instruct the PBX 306 to establish a voice connection 312 between itself and the convenient phone 311 and to establish a voice connection 314 between itself and the destination mobile phone 308. Thereafter, the user of the mobile phone 302 would discontinue the data call 304 to the server 305 and use the convenient phone 311 to talk via the voice connections 312 and 314 with the user of the destination mobile phone 310. An advantage of this service is that the user would use the “less expensive” convenient land-line phone 311 (and not their mobile phone 302) to talk with the user of destination mobile phone 308 (or destination phones 310 and 312). Another advantage of this service is that the user of the mobile phone 302 would not use any of their voice minutes to setup the call with the server 305. However, this service has several drawbacks including (for example): (1) not all mobile phones 302 have the capability to setup and use a data channel 304; (2) not all networks have a data capability that is commonly associated with 3G, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Enhance Data Rate for GSM Environment (EDGE) etc.; and (3) the user of the mobile phone 302 needs to subscribe and pay a fee to use a data service that is associated with 3G, GPRS, EDGE, etc. . . . . Accordingly, there is a need to address these shortcomings and other shortcomings which are associated with the known services like the Cellular Extension service and the Call Master service. This particular need and other needs are satisfied by the present invention.
The present invention is related to a method for enabling a person to use their mobile phone to setup a call between a convenient phone (which the person will utilize instead of the mobile phone) and a destination phone. In one embodiment, the method includes the following steps: (1) establishing a voice connection between the mobile phone and a third party call control server; (2) providing a telephone number of a convenient phone over the voice connection to the third party call control server; (3) providing a telephone number of a destination phone over the voice connection to the third party call control server such that the third party call control server is able to interact with a phone switch and have a voice connection established between the convenient phone and the destination phone; (4) disconnecting the voice connection between the mobile phone and the third party call control server; and (5) allowing the person to use the convenient phone to have a teleconference with a user of the destination phone.
A more complete understanding of the present invention may be obtained by reference to the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:
Referring to
Thereafter, the user of the mobile phone 402 would receive another voice prompt from the server 414/PBX 416 such as “press 1 to input the phone number of the destination phone” and then the user would press 1 and subsequently say or use DTMF signals to provide a telephone number 405 of the destination phone 406, 408 or 410 (step 2). Alternatively, the user of the mobile phone 402 could interact with a GUI (running specialized application software) to select the telephone number 405 of the destination phone 406, 408 or 410 which is stored in their personal directory so as to provide that telephone number 405 to the server 414/PBX 416 (step 2). In this particular example, the user of the mobile phone 402 wants to call the mobile phone 406 which is located in a public network B. Alternatively, the user of the mobile phone 402 could inform the server 414 that they want to call a land-line phone 408 (located in public network B), or an enterprise phone 410 (associated with the PBX 416).
Then, the user of the mobile phone 402 would receive another voice prompt from the server 414/PBX 416 such as “press 2 to provide the phone number of the convenient phone” and then the user would press 2 and subsequently say or use DTMF signals to provide a telephone number 407 of the convenient phone 404 (step 3). Alternatively, the user of the mobile phone 402 could interact with a GUI (running specialized application software) to select the telephone number 407 of the convenient phone 404 which is stored in their personal directory so as to provide that telephone number 407 to the server 414/PBX 416 (step 3). Typically, the convenient phone 404 would be a land-line phone 404 which is located in the same room or is at least located relatively close to the user of the mobile phone 402. But, the convenient phone 404 can also be any type of communication device including, for example, a mobile phone (which has a desirable tariff structure), a hotel phone or an enterprise phone.
If desired, once the user provides the telephone number 407 of the convenient phone 404 then this telephone number could be stored and used by the server 414 for subsequent calls until the user decides to change and use a new convenient phone. In this case, the user of the mobile phone 402 could receive a voice prompt from the server 414/PBX 416 such as “press 3 to change the phone number of the convenient phone” and then the user would press 3 and subsequently say or use DTMF signals to provide the telephone number of the new convenient phone. Alternatively, the user of the mobile phone 402 could interact with a GUI (running specialized application software) to select the telephone number of the new convenient phone which would be stored in their personal directory so as to provide that telephone number to the server 414/PBX 416. Of course, the server 414 would be able to store the telephone numbers of convenient phones for a large number users.
At this point, the server 414 has the telephone number 407 of the convenient phone 404 and would instruct the PBX 416 to first establish a voice connection 418 between itself and the convenient phone 404 (step 4). Once the user picks up the convenient phone 404 to establish the voice connection 418, the server 414 would then instruct the PBX 416 to use the telephone number 405 of the destination phone 406 to establish a voice connection 420 with the destination phone 406 (step 5). Then, the user of the mobile phone 402 would discontinue the voice call 412 to the server 414/PBX 416 (step 6) and use the convenient phone 404 to talk via the voice connections 418 and 420 to the user of the destination phone 406 (step 7). If needed, the server 414/PBX 416 could use an automated voice to let the user of the destination phone 406 know that a person named “John Smith” is attempting to call them and will be on the line in a short amount of time, and if desired enable the user of the destination phone 406 to confirm their desire to accept the call by asking them for a specific voice response or asking them to input a specific DTMF.
There are several advantages associated with the present invention including (for example): (1) the user (or their employer) of the mobile phone 402 would only be charged for using minutes and possibly roaming (if the public network A is not their home network or is an international network) for the time it takes to establish the call between the convenient phone 404 and the destination phone 406; and (2) the user (or their employer) would have to pay a much lower fee for the voice connections 418 and 420 to the convenient phone 404 and the destination phone 406 than if the mobile phone 402 was used to call the destination phone 406. Plus, the present invention is a marked improvement over the known Call Master service in that it allows the user of the mobile phone 402 to have a third party call control feature without needing a data subscription or having to establish a data connection with a data network. Moreover, the mobile phone 402 used in the present invention can be but does not have to be a “smart” mobile phone 402 which is capable of interacting with a data network as is needed with the known Call Master service.
Referring to
To accomplish this, the user would use their mobile phone 402 to: (6a) re-establish a voice connection 412′ with the server 414 (which recognizes the mobile phone 402 and knows there is an existing voice connection 418/420 between the convenient phone 404 and the first destination phone 406); (7a) provide a telephone number 502 of a second destination phone 408 (for example) over the re-established voice connection 412′ to the server 414 so that the server 414 can have the PBX 416 establish another voice connection 508 and connect the second destination phone 408 to the previously established voice connection 418/420 between the convenient phone 404 and the first destination phone 404; (8a) disconnect the voice connection 412′ between the mobile phone 402 and the server 414; and (9a) use the convenient phone 404 to have a three-way conference call with the people using the two destination phones 406 and 408. Of course, the person using the mobile phone 402 could setup the conference call with the people using the two destination phones 406 and 408 in the beginning of the process at step 3a by providing the server 414 with both of the telephone numbers 504 and 506 for the two destination phones 406 and 408. In addition, the person using the mobile phone 402 could if they wanted to repeat steps 6a-9a and setup a conference call between the convenient phone 404 and one or more additional destination phone(s) 410 (for example).
Referring to
To accomplish this, the user would use their mobile phone 402 to: (6b) re-establish a voice connection 412′ with the server 414 (which recognizes the mobile phone 402 and knows there is an existing voice connection 418/420 between the convenient phone 404 and the first destination phone 406); (7b) request that the server 414 have the PBX 416 connect the mobile phone 402 to the voice connection 418/420 established between the convenient phone 404 and the destination phone 406; (8b) disconnect the voice connection 418 between the convenient phone 404 and the PBX 416; and (9b) use the mobile phone 402 to have a teleconference with another person who is using the destination phone 406. In particular, the PBX 416 would use the voice connections 412′/420 to connect the mobile phone 402 to the destination phone 406. This feature is desirable since it allows the user to become mobile again once they change the voice leg and connect the on-going call to their mobile phone 402.
Referring to
From the foregoing, it should be appreciated that a person can use their mobile phone to establish a voice connection with a central server, then send call control information in-band in the voice channel (via a Voice User Interface (VUI), DTMF or Multi-Frequency (MF) signaling) to setup a call between a convenient phone (e.g., land-line phone or mobile phone which has a better tariff structure) and a destination phone. Once the call is setup, the mobile phone can be hung-up to save on mobile connection costs and the person can use the convenient phone to talk to a person using the destination phone. If further call management is required, e.g. a third party needs to be added midway in the call, then the user can use their mobile phone to call the central server and send more call management commands in-band on the voice channel to establish a three-way conference call between the convenient phone and multiple destination phones. Voice prompts may be used to guide the user through the phone management, or a GUI application may be provisioned on the mobile phone to facilitate user interaction with the central server.
Although multiple embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated in the accompanying drawings and described in the foregoing detailed description, it should be understood that the invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed, but is capable of numerous rearrangements, modifications and substitutions without departing from the spirit of the invention as set forth and defined by the following claims.
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