Patent ID: 6243460
Filing Date: 2001-06-05
Classification: H04M

Abstract:
A telephone station set connectable to a network comprising:a tone generator, said tone generator generating a plurality of tones;a numeric keypad directly connected to said tone generator; anda character keypad directly connected to said tone generator, said character keypad being separate from said numeric keypad;said numeric keypad having a plurality of numeric buttons, each of said numeric buttons directly connected to said tone generator such that a unique dual-tone, multifrequency (DTMF) tone pair preselected from said plurality of tones and associated with said each numeric button is sent to said network on activation of said each of said numeric buttons;said character keypad having a plurality of character buttons greater in number than said plurality of numeric buttons, each of said plurality of character buttons directly connected to said tone generator such that a DTMF tone pair at said tone generator, said tone pair corresponding to one of said unique DTMF tone pairs associated with one of said numeric buttons, is sent to said network on activation of said each of said plurality of character buttons.