Patent ID: 6185289
Filing Date: 2001-02-06
Classification: H04M,H04Q

Abstract:
A method comprising the steps of:detecting dialing from a calling communication station of a predetermined short code number prior to dialing of any other digits at the start of a call at one of a plurality of switching offices of a communication network,sending a first query containing information relating to the call through an interoffice signaling network to a mediation point;based on predetermined criteria, selecting one of a plurality of subscriber information service providers capable of providing an independent subscriber information service to the calling communication station and sending a second query containing at least some of the information relating to the call to a database of the selected information service provider; accessing data in the database of the selected information service provider in response to the second query to obtain a call processing instruction;sending a first response containing the call processing instruction from the database of the selected information service provider to the mediation point;processing the first response to validate the call processing instruction;sending a second response containing the validated call processing instruction to a call processing node of the communication network; andprocessing the call in the communication network in accord with the validated call processing instruction.