Patent ID: 6343119
Filing Date: 2002-01-29
Classification: H04M,H04Q

Abstract:
For a telephone network constituting part of the public switched telephone network (PSTN), a system for delivering extended telephone services relative to a predetermined telephone line associated with a subscription to said extended services, said extended services involving interception and conditional redirection of telephone calls directed to said predetermined line, said conditional redirection serving to route said call to a destination specifiable by a subscriber to said extended services, said subscriber having an instantaneous connection to the PSTN, when said call is intercepted, through a data communication network external to the PSTN and a circuit path internal to the PSTN which excludes said predetermined line; said extended service delivering system comprising:means internal to said PSTN for connecting resource management facilities of said PSTN to said authorized subscriber via said external data communication network and said internal circuit path excluding said predetermined line; and data processing elements internal to said PSTN, operating while said subscriber is connected to said resource management facilities, for: (a) instantly intercepting telephone calls directed to said predetermined telephone line before said calls can be applied to said predetermined line; (b) presenting information about each intercepted call instantly to said connected subscriber via said external network and internal circuit path; and (c) conditionally, at the direction of said connected subscriber, instantly redirecting said intercepted call to a destination other than said predetermined line; said other destination being instantly specifiable by said subscriber while said intercepted call is being processed by the PSTN; said operations performed by said data processing elements being executable while said predetermined line is both idle (on-hook) and busy (off-hook).