Abstract:
Transmitting by a public service provider an audio message to the calling party instead normal ring back tones when a call is placed by a calling party to a called party. This audio message is an advertisement that is paid for by a third party. If the calling party wishes more information concerning the advertisement, the calling party indicates this desire either by a spoken command or by accuation of a multi-frequency key on the telephone hand set during the message. If the calling party has indicated a desire to obtain more information with respect to the advertisement, when the call to the called party is completed, the public service provider will automatically connect the calling party to a system that will provide additional information concerning the advertisement. A data terminal placing a data call will receive advertisements in a similar manner.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
     This invention relates to telecommunication switching, and, in particular, to the provision of paid advertisements during ring back period to the call originator. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     In the current public service provider local market, extreme pressure exists on maximizing revenue to offset costs associated with providing satisfactory customer service. Within the prior art, local public service providers have attempted to maximize their revenue by offering a variety of expensive service features to the users. These features include voice messaging, caller ID, etc. for which the user pays a fixed amount per month. However, such features that are paid for by the users have not generated sufficient revenue to upgrade standard service provided to the customers. The local public service providers (such as the Regional Bell Operating Companies) have also requested that they be allowed to enter the long distance market. However, because of government regulations and requirements, the local public service providers have not made sufficient in roads into the long distance market. The local public service providers need a new source of revenue and one that does not require that their customers directly pay for this new source of revenue. 
     Within the prior art, it is known for long distance service providers, such as AT&amp;T, to provide an identification announcement during a call set up to reassure the call originator that they are using the long distance service provider that they wish to use. In addition, some long distance service providers also provide a notification of the time of day for the region of the called party. This information is provided so that the call originator can be aware of the time of day at the location they are calling. In addition, some local public service providers and long distance service providers provide an option upon the called telephone being busy for the call originator to select certain features. This is done by listing the features to the call originator as an audio message when it is determined that the called telephone is busy. 
     The aforementioned utilization of the time during which the call is being set up or when a busy called terminal is discovered do not generate additional revenue for the public service provider if the customer chooses not to select the feature. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention is directing to solving these and other problems and shortcomings of the prior art. Illustratively according to the invention, when a call is placed by a calling party to a called party, during the time that the calling party would normally hear the ring back tones, a public service provider transmits instead an, audio message to the calling party. This audio message is an advertisement that is paid for by a third party. If the calling party wishes more information concerning the advertisement, the calling party indicates this desire either by a spoken command or by actuation of a multi-frequency key on the telephone hand set during the message. If the calling party has indicated a desire to obtain more information with respect to the advertisement, when the call to the called party is completed, the public service provider will automatically connect the calling party to a system that will provide additional audio information concerning the advertisement. Advantageously, the public service provider will connect the calling party to the system designated by the company placing the advertisement. A data terminal placing a data call will receive advertisements in a similar manner. 
     Advantageously, the public service provider provides the service via a local central office telephone switching system. The customers connected to the local central office may be grouped into a plurality of classes with each class being based on the social demographics of the customer plus other criteria. Advantageously, each customer may be considered as an individual and the advertisements are placed on the basis of an individual or a group based on the desires of the advertisers. For example, older couples tend to eat out more frequently than couples with young children. Hence, the central office would direct advertisements for finer restaurants to the older couples and advertisements for fast foods (specializing in children) to the younger couples. If the customers were divided into classes for the purpose of directing advertisements to these customers, a large number of classes could be created. For a particular advertisement, the advertisement could be directed to more than one class. The identification of the customers by social demographics and other criteria allows advertisers to pin point the audience to which their advertisements will go. Advantageously, the service provider could collect additional information if a customer indicates during the playing of the advertisement that they wish additional information from the advertiser. The ability of an advertiser to pin point the recipients of their advertisements so precisely will make the capability extremely valuable for advertisers. Advantageously, different advertisements will be directed to the same class or individual depending on the time of day and the desires of the advertisers. 
     Not only can advertisements be supplied by the public service provider via a telephone but a data terminal attempting to establish data service would have data messages defining the advertisement sent to the data terminal while the data terminal is attempting to log on to a data system via the central office. In addition, advertisements could be sent to data terminals for personal computers when the terminal is attempting to gain Internet access via a switching system other than a telephone switching system such as a service provider providing Internet access via a cable system. 
     These and other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of illustrative embodiments of the invention considered together with the drawing. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING 
     FIG. 1 illustrates, in block diagram form, an illustrative embodiment of the invention; and 
     FIGS. 2-4 illustrate, in flowchart form, the steps performed by a switching system in implementing the embodiment of the invention; 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     FIG. 1 illustrates central office  100  for implementing the invention. Central office  100  includes control processor  102  which provides over control of central office  100 , switching network  101  that provides all of the necessary switching and interface functions for central office  100 , and voice synthesizer  103  that provides the voice announcements for the advertisements. Central office  100  may advantageously be the Lucent Technologies 4 ESS® telephone switching system. However, voice synthesizer  103  has greater message capacity than found in a standard 4 ESS switching system. Central office  100  is interconnected to public switching network  104  via trunks  108 . Central office  100  provides service to its customers via terminal sets  106 - 107 . One skilled in the art could readily see that the functions provided with respect to the invention by central office  100  could also be provided by a switching office within the long distance network that is part of public switching network  104 . It is possible to insert advertisements during the setup time for a call despite the advances in switching/signaling technology. Because of the emergence of cellular telephones and different call coverage services provided by local public service providers, the time to set up a call can be quite long. 
     Consider the following example. When terminal set  106  places a call to terminal set  107 , control processor  102  via switching network  101  provides a dial tone to terminal set  106  and receives dialing information defining the telephone number of terminal set  107 . Upon receiving the telephone number of terminal set  107 , central processor  102  performs the standard telephone switching functions to establish a call between terminal set  106  and terminal set  107  via switching network  102 . These standard telephone functions include ringing terminal set  107 . In accordance with the invention, control processor  102  accesses an internal table to determine what advertisement should be transmitted to terminal set  106  during the period of time before terminal set  107  answers the call or terminal set  106  abandons the call. After determining the message that should be transmitted to terminal set  106 , control processor  102  requests that voice synthesizer  103  transmit this message to switching network  101 , and control processor  102  properly sets up a connection from voice synthesizer  103  to terminal set  106 . Advantageously, voice synthesizer  103  has a plurality of links to switching network  101  and can be simultaneously transmitting a plurality of messages via switching network  101  to terminal sets connected to central office  100 . While the message is being transmitted from voice synthesizer  103  to terminal set  106 , control processor  102  utilizing well known techniques connects a voice recognition circuit or a multi-frequency detector circuit, both of which are part of switching network  101  to the connection with terminal set  106 . The purpose of these circuits is to detect a positive response of the customer utilizing terminal set  106  to receive additional information concerning the advertisement when the call to terminal set  107  is abandoned. The call may either be abandoned because terminal set  107  fails to answer the call or after the call has been answered and the parties are finished with the telephone conversation. If the customer using terminal set  106  indicated during the advertisement that they wished additional information, after the telephone call has been abandoned, control processor  102  places a call to terminal set  106  and terminates this call either to call center  109  designated by the advertiser via switching network  101  and public switching network  104  or provide an additional detailed message via voice synthesizer  103 . 
     For example, if the original advertisement stated “If you want to refinance your home, press 1 or say yes”, control processor  102  transfers a subsequent call set up to terminal set  106  to call center  109  of the advertiser who would normally be a mortgage company. In a second example, if the message stated “Would you like to go to Joe&#39;s Truck Stop for dinner, press 1 or say yes”, control processor  102  would instruct a voice synthesizer  103  to play out additional information concerning Joe&#39;s Truck Stop to terminal set  106  after the abandonment of the call between terminal sets  106  and  107 . 
     Advantageously, there would be a plurality of advertisements that could be played at any one time to a given class of customers or an individual customer. Control processor  102  utilizes an algorithm so that the same advertisement is not continuously repeated to an individual customer each time that customer places a telephone call. Further, the owner of central office  100  would be paid a fee for each advertisement that was played during a call origination and an additional fee for each time that a customer wished to gain additional information concerning the advertisement. In addition, there would be a varying fee schedule based on the time of day and day of week that the advertisement was transmitted. 
     FIGS. 2-4 illustrate, in flowchart form, the steps implemented by control processor  102  in implementing an embodiment of the invention. In FIG. 2, once execution is started, decision block  201  determines if a call setup message has been received from a station set or a terminal. If the answer is no, block  202  performs normal processing before returning control back to decision block  201 . If the answer in decision block  201  is yes, decision block  203  determines if the setup request is an analog or digital protocol request. If the answer in decision block  203  is no, control is transferred to block  209  which determines the audio message that is to be transmitted to the station set. Block  209  will also perform the necessary operations of assuring that the customer does not constantly repeatedly hear the same advertisement. After execution of block  209 , block  211  sets up a connection between the calling station and voice synthesizer  103 . After execution of block  211 , block  212  commences the process of setting up a call to the called station as designated by the calling station before transferring control to block  301  of FIG.  3 . 
     Block  301  transmits the audio message to voice synthesizer  103  before transferring control to decision block  302 . Upon receiving the audio message, the voice synthesizer transmits this message to switching network  101 . The audio message also specifies to which port of switching network  101  voice synthesizer  103  is to transmit the message. While the message is being communicated to the calling station, decision block  302  determines if the called station has answered the call setup. If the answer is yes, control is transferred to block  305  which performs normal processing of an active call before transferring control to block  306 . Block  306  removes the connection between the calling station and the voice synthesizer before transferring control to decision block  400  of FIG.  4 . If the answer in decision block  302  is no, control is transferred to decision block  303  which determines if the calling station has abandoned the call. If the answer is yes, control is transferred to block  304  which performs normal processing of an abandoned call before transferring control to block  306  whose activity has already been described. Returning to decision block  303 , if the calling station has not abandoned the call, control is transferred to decision block  307 . 
     Decision block  307  determines if during the receipt of the message from the voice synthesizer the calling party has indicated that they wish to receive additional information concerning the advertisement. If the answer is yes, block  308  sets a request flag before transferring control to decision block  309 . If the answer in decision block  307  is no, control is also transferred to decision block  309 . Decision block  309  determines if the audio message has been completely played to the calling party. If the answer is no, control is transferred back to decision block  302 . If the answer in decision block  309  is yes, control is transferred back to block  310  which determines a new audio message before transferring control back to block  301 . 
     Returning to block  306  from which control is transferred to decision block  400  of FIG. 4 which waits for the end of an answered call before transferring control to decision block  401 . When control is transferred to decision block  401 , the called party has answered the call or the calling party has abandoned the call. Decision block  401  determines if the request flag was set by the calling party while the advertisement was being played. If the answer is no, control is transferred back to decision block  201  of FIG.  2 . If the answer in decision block  401  is yes, decision block  402  determines if control processor  102  is to play additional information to the calling station via voice synthesizer  103  or if the calling station set is to be connected to a call center. If the calling station set is to be connected to a call center, decision block transfers control to block  403  that sets up a call between the designated call center and the calling station before transferring control back to decision block  201  of FIG.  2 . If the answer in decision block  402  is no, control is transferred to block  404 . 
     Block  404  determines the audio message that is to give additional information to the calling party concerning the advertisement. Block  406  then sets up a connection between the calling station and the voice synthesizer before transferring control to block  407 . The latter block transmits the audio message to the voice synthesizer which plays the message to the calling station set. After the message has been played to the calling station set, block  408  removes the connection between the calling station and the voice synthesizer before returning control back to decision block  201  of FIG.  2 . One skilled in the art would readily envision that block  406  determines when the calling station had responded to the setup of the connection before transferring control to block  407 . 
     Returning to decision block  203  of FIG. 2, if a digital protocol is used to initiate the call setup, control is transferred to decision block  204  to determine if a voice or data call is being set up. In a digital protocol such as the ISDN protocol or the DSL protocol the setup message defines whether a voice or data call is being set up. If a voice call is being set up, control is transferred to block  209  whose operations have already been described. If a data call is being set up, control is transferred to block  206 . The latter block determines the data message that is to be transmitted by control processor  102  to the terminal via switching network  101 . Block  207  sets up a connection to the terminal. This may be a circuit switched or a packet connection as is well-known by those skilled in the art. After the connection has been set up, block  208  starts the process of setting up a call to the called system to which the calling terminal is to be connected before transferring control to block  311  of FIG.  3 . 
     Block  311  starts the transmission of the data message to the terminal from the control processor. The data message may be text only or may be a multi-media message consisting of video and sound. After execution of block  311 , control is transferred to decision block  312 . The latter decision block determines if the called system has answered. If the answer is yes, control is transferred to block  315  which performs normal processing of an answered call before transferring control to block  316 . Block  316  removes the connection between the terminal and the control processor before transferring control to decision block  410  of FIG.  4 . Returning to decision block  312 , if the answer is no, decision block  313  determines if the terminal has abandoned the call setup. If the answer is yes in decision block  313 , control is transferred to block  314  which performs the normal processing for an abandoned call before transferring control to block  316  whose activity has already been described. Returning to decision block  313 , if the answer is no, control is transferred to decision block  317 . Decision block  317  determines if the user of the terminal has indicated that they want to obtain more information on the advertisement. If the answer is yes, control is transferred to block  318  which sets the request flag before transferring control to decision block  319 . If the answer in decision block  317  is yes, control is transferred to block  319 . The latter block determines if the data message is done. If the answer is no, control is transferred to decision block  312 . If the answer is yes, control is transferred to block  321  which determines a new message before transferring control to block  311 . 
     When control is transferred from block  316  to decision block  410  of FIG. 4 which waits for the end of answered call before transferring control to decision block  411 . Decision block  411  determines if the request flag has been set indicating that the user of the terminal wishes to receive additional information. If the answer is no, control is transferred to decision block  201  of FIG.  2 . If the answer is yes, control is transferred to decision block  412  which determines if the additional information is to be transmitted from the central processor or is to be received from a call center. If the additional information is to be received from a call center, control is transferred to block  413  which sets up a digital connection between the call center and the terminal, before transferring control back to decision block  201  of FIG.  2 . One skilled in the art could readily envision that a digital connection could be set up between the terminal and an Internet web site rather than a call center. If the answer in decision block  412  is no, block  414  determines what the data message should be transmitted before transferring control to block  416 . The later block sets up a connection between the terminal and the control processor. Then, block  417  transmits the data message to the terminal before transferring control to block  418 . Block  418  removes the connection between the terminal and the control processor and transfers control back to decision block  201  of FIG.  2 . 
     Of course, various changes and modification to the illustrative embodiments described above will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Such changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention and without diminishing its intended advantages. It is therefore intended that such changes and modifications be covered by the following claims except insofar as limited by the prior art.