Abstract:
A database of call information may be generated based on called numbers. When a called number is received from a user, the present invention determines whether the called party associated with the called number is a business. If the called number is associated with a business, information about the call is stored. If the called number is not associated with a business, the information is not stored, so as to protect privacy. The present invention may determine not only that the called number is associated with a business, but also what type of business. The call information, or information about a plurality of such calls, may be shared with a third party. The third party may or may not be a competitor of the business that was called. Armed with the call information, the third party may generate advertising directed at the calling party in response to being informed about the call. For instance, a third party competitor may email the calling party an electronic coupon or a notice about a current or upcoming sale.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to telecommunications, and more particularly to data mining of outgoing calls in a telecommunications system based on called party identity. 
     Businesses have long desired to leverage their advertising expenditures to get the greatest return. One way of doing so is to selectively target recipients of a business&#39;s advertising. For instance, a local pizza parlor may wish to mail advertising to people likely to order pizza. Realizing that people living many miles away would not be likely to order pizza from them, the pizza parlor, or more typically an advertising service acting on behalf of the pizza parlor, would access a database of addresses to filter down the mailing list to a more appropriate target audience. The advertising would then be mailed to the people living in the right areas. 
     While this approach to advertising helps control costs somewhat, it may still not be properly tailored for the business. For instance, the pizza parlor may not wish to send coupons to existing customers, but instead offer coupons only to people who have been ordering pizzas from a competitor. Or, the pizza parlor may want to target only those people who typically order pizza from competitors after 9:00 at night, so as to increase utilization of the pizza parlor&#39;s existing resources. However, determining who has been ordering from a competitor, and possibly when, is problematic with prior art techniques. Competitors are obviously unwilling to share customer data. Surveys, whether telephonic or mall-intercept, are often viewed by consumers as unwelcome, even intrusive. Thus, businesses must rely on fairly non-specific information when making advertising decisions. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     One aspect of the present invention focuses on gathering information about what businesses are being called by a user (or users). A database of call information is generated based on outgoing calls. When a called number is received from a user, the present invention determines whether the called party associated with the called number is a business, such as by consulting a reverse directory service. Preferably, the present invention determines not only that the called number is associated with a business, but also the type of business. If the called number is associated with a business, the call information, or information about a plurality of such calls, is stored. If the called number is not associated with a business, the information is not stored, so as to protect privacy. The stored call information may later be shared with interested third parties, such as advertising services. 
     In another aspect of the present invention, outgoing calls are filtered for calls to selected called numbers. If a call is initiated to one of these select numbers, the present invention notifies appropriate third parties of the call, giving suitable information about the call. The third party may be a competitor of the business that was called or some other third party subscriber to the data mining service. Based on this call information, such as when the call was placed and the duration of the call, some inferences about the nature of the call can be made. These inferences may then be used to provide the caller with additional useful services that the third party may offer. For instance, armed with the call information, the third party may generate advertising directed at the calling party in response to being informed about the call, such as by emailing the calling party an electronic coupon or a notice about a current or upcoming sale. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 shows a calling party communicating with a called party via a communications network equipped with the present invention. 
     FIG. 2 shows a process flow for one aspect of the present invention. 
     FIG. 3 shows a process flow for another aspect of the present invention. 
     FIG. 4 shows a process flow for still another aspect of the present invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     FIG. 1 shows a calling party  10  connected to a called party  12  via a mobile terminal  14  and an associated communications network  16 . The calling party  10  is the party initiating the communications session while the called party  12  is the party receiving the incoming call. In the simple illustrative example used herein, the calling party  110  is a consumer ordering pizza while the called party  12  is the pizza shop being called. While the illustrative communications network  16  connecting the two parties  10 , 12  in FIG. 1 is a wireless communications network  16  (such as a cellular telephone system), the communications network may comprise the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), the Internet for voice-over-IP communications, or any other known communications network utilizing phone numbers. 
     A tracking server  20  is connected to the communications network  16 , or may be a portion thereof. The tracking server  20  monitors the outgoing calls from mobile terminal  14  and performs the majority of the information transactional work of the present invention. The tracking server  20  includes a database  22 , which may be referred to herein as the call tracking database  22 . The tracking server  20  also communicates with a reverse directory service  30 , typically through the communications network  16  or via the Internet. 
     FIG. 2 shows one aspect of the present invention. Initially, the user makes an outgoing call by dialing the appropriate number in any fashion known in the art (block  210 ). For ease of reference, this number will be referred to as the “called number.” In the United States, this called number typically consists of ten digits, but may contain more. The entry and format of such called numbers, including speed dialing, are well known in the art and are therefore not discussed further herein. The communications network  16  notifies tracking server  20  that the mobile terminal  14  is attempting a call to the called number. The tracking server  20  then determines whether the called number belongs to a business or to a residence (block  220 ). To do this, the tracking server  20  will typically cause a so-called reverse look-up to be performed, such as by submitting a suitable request to a reverse directory service  30 . One such reverse directory service  30  may be found at anywho.com/telq. The reverse directory service  30  should return the name of the business and an indication of whether the called number is a business or not (block  230 ). For instance, the reverse directory service  30  may provide a simple business yes/no flag to indicate whether or not the called number is associated with a business. If the called number corresponds to a residence, the process may stop (block  900 ). However, if the called number corresponds to a business, the reverse directory service  30  preferably also provides an indication of the type of business involved. For instance, the indication may be as simple as “restaurant,” or “restaurant with delivery,” or may be more complex such as “restaurant, Italian, inexpensive, pizza specialist,” or the like. If the called number corresponds to a business, the tracking server  20  gathers information about the call and/or the calling party  10  (“call information”), requesting any additional information as necessary from the communications network  16  (block  240 ). By way of example, the time and duration of the call may be noted, along with the calling party&#39;s  10  current location and home address. This call information, including the called party information, is then stored (block  245 ) in the call tracking database  22 . By following this process for a plurality of calls, the tracking server  20  may accumulate a significant amount of information about the calling habits of the calling party  10 . Or, if a plurality of calling parties  10  are monitored, then the tracking server  20  may accumulate a significant amount of information about the calling habits of a plurality of calling parties  10 . This information may then be passed on to advertising groups or other third parties  40  for use. 
     In another aspect of the present invention shown in FIG. 3, the tracking server  20  may filter outgoing calls based on the presence of selected called number(s). That is, the tracking server  20  may monitor outgoing calls for the presence of a particular called number, or the presence of one of a set of called numbers. Continuing with a pizza parlor example, the tracking server  20  may monitor outgoing calls for called numbers corresponding to one or more competing pizza parlors. The phone numbers of the selected competitor(s) are determined (block  205 ); for ease of reference these phone numbers will be called the target list. Thereafter, when a monitored user places a call (block  210 ), the tracking server  20  is notified by the communications network  16  and compares the called number against the target list (block  235 ). If a match is not found, the process terminates (block  900 ). If a match is found (block  235 ), then the tracking server  20  may actively tell one or more interested third parties about the collected information (block  250 ). The third parties may do nothing in response to receiving the information. But, more typically, the third party  40  will try to respond to the information in a timely manner (block  260 ). In the illustrative example, the tracking server  20  may forward the information to one or more pizza parlors that are not party to the call. Preferably, this passing of call information is performed during the call, or at least shortly thereafter. Alternatively, the tracking database  22  may be used to supply the third party  40  with the call information in answer to a query from the third party  40  at a subsequent time. Each third party  40  then has an option to trigger an advertising response to the call (block  260 ). This response may take a wide variety of forms. For instance, the third party  40  may include the calling party  10  on its next coupon mailing list. Or, the third party  40  may call the calling party  10  and try to solicit business therefrom (block  280   c ). Preferably, however, the third party  40  examines the calling party&#39;s  10  preferences as part of the triggered response (block  270 ). These preferences help indicate what the calling party&#39;s desired methods of communication are and are  20  preferably supplied by the tracking server  20  as part of the call notification. For instance, the calling party  10  may have specified that promotions and/or coupons should be sent via email to a particular address (block  280   d ). If so, the third party competitor  40  should direct the coupon and/or promotional material generated in response to the call (collectively “advertising material”) to that email address. Likewise, the calling party  10  may have indicated that some other avenue should be used, such as by sending or pushing an electronic notification, such using instant messaging, using SMS messages, or using WAP (block  280   b ). Or, the calling party  10  may have indicated that more traditional advertising routes should be used, such as traditional postal mail (block  280   a ) or receiving a traditional phone call (block  280   c ). The calling party  10  may, of course, consider the advertising material or ignore it (block  300 ). 
     It should be noted that the process shown in FIG. 3 does not require that a reverse directory service  30  be consulted. Instead, the target list of called numbers to be monitored may simply be generated once, manually or by any other method, and then used for the filtering reference. In addition, while call information about the identified calls may be stored in the tracking database  22 , it need not be. Instead, the call information about the identified calls need only be passed on to the third party(s)  40 , and need not be more than transiently stored by the tracking server  20 . 
     The processes of FIGS. 2 and 3 may be advantageously combined as shown in FIG.  4 . In FIG. 4, the user makes an outgoing call by dialing the appropriate number in any fashion known in the art (block  210 ). The communications network  16  notifies tracking server  20  that the mobile terminal  14  is attempting a call to the called number. The tracking server  20  then determines whether the called number belongs to a business or to a residence (block  220 ), such as by submitting a suitable request to a reverse directory service  30 . The reverse directory service  30  returns an indication of whether the called number is a business or not (block  230 ). If the called number corresponds to a residence, the process may stop (block  900 ). However, if the called number corresponds to a business, the tracking server  20  records gathers information about the call and/or the calling party  10 , requesting any additional information as necessary from the communications network  16  (block  240 ), and then stores the call information in the call tracking database  22  (block  245 ). The tracking server  20  also actively notifies interested third parties  40  about the collected information (block  250 ). The third party(s)  40  may have been identified based on a subscription list, or by consulting a “normal” directory service for competing businesses. The third party(s)  40  may do nothing in response to receiving the information (block  900 ). But, more typically, the third party  40  will try to respond to the information in a timely manner (block  260 ). For instance, the server  20  may contact competitors of the called party  12 . Continuing the illustrative example, the tracking server  20  may forward the information to a competing pizza shop that is not party to the call. The third party competitor  40  then triggers an advertising response to the call (block  260 ), with the advertising response preferably being routed to the calling party  10  based on calling party&#39;s  10  its preferences as supplied by the tracking server  20  (blocks  270 - 280 ). The calling party  10  may, of course, consider the advertising material or ignore it (block  300 ). 
     By way of example, assume that user A calls pizza parlor X to order a pizza for delivery by dialing “ 555 - 1034 .” In this case, user A is the calling party  10  and pizza parlor X is the called party  12 . The communications network  16  handles this call in the usual way, but also notes that call information for calls from A&#39;s mobile terminal  14  are to be forwarded to tracking server  20 . The tracking server  20  sends a request to a reverse directory service  30  based on the called number “ 555 - 1034 ,” adding an appropriate area code, etc. as needed. The reverse directory service returns information that indicates that “ 555 - 1034 ” belongs to a business, in particular pizza parlor X. While this call is in progress, or thereafter, the tracking server  20  notifies pizza parlor Y that user A has called pizza parlor X, pursuant to an agreement between the operators of the tracking server  20  and pizza parlor Y. This notification may include information about the time and duration of the relevant call, user A&#39;s contact information, and the like. Pizza parlor Y then preferably automatically triggers an advertising response. After noting that user A prefers to receive advertising materials on the display of her mobile terminal, pizza parlor Y sends advertising materials to user A by “pushing” WAP advertising to user A. User A then receives the advertising materials from pizza parlor Y. In this way, pizza parlor Y may better target its advertising to reach consumers who order pizza from its competitors. 
     The process above may be followed for each call; alternatively, the tracking server  20  may wait to notify the third party  30  until a predetermined number of calls have occurred within a predefined time period, so as to filter out one-time events. 
     It may also be desirable to allow individual users to opt in or opt out of participation in systems according to the present invention, so as to help alleviate privacy concerns. 
     While the discussion above has used pizza parlors X and Y for illustrative purposes, the invention is not limited to such situations. Indeed, the present invention is suitable for a wide range of businesses, including without limitation car repair shops, pharmacies, health care providers, retail stores, on-line stores, and the like. 
     The present invention may, of course, be carried out in other specific ways than those herein set forth without departing from the scope of the invention. The present embodiments are, therefore, to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, and all changes coming within the meaning and equivalency range of the appended claims are intended to be embraced therein.