Abstract:
An alpha-numeric string electronic telephone and client service provider communication system is superimposed over the existing Internet, telephone, and pager legacy systems to provide a much simpler communication system that will work seamlessly with the existing communication systems. The new system will allow an unlimited number of connections and an unlimited numbers of signal type protocols to be used in the future and eventually phase out all of the separate numeric only telephone systems world wide and at the same time integrate the legacy e-mail system of the Internet with the legacy world wide numeric communication systems in a seamless and more powerful manner. Some other advantages of the new system is to eliminate the need for having to list up to five or more numbers on an individual business card. The system can eliminate the need to show multiple area codes at the same location and can even eliminate the need to have to give out ones company extension number. Another major benefit is that at least two types of communication connections can be offered at different prices to the customer. With the current invention a client service provider can offer connections of the legacy direct type at one price and connection via the Internet at a different price depending on the service requested by the customer.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This is a continuation of Ser. No. 09/510,028 filed on Feb. 22, 2000. 
     This application claims priority to the provisional patent application identified by U.S. Serial No. 60/121,193, entitled “Electronic Telephone Service Provider System”, which was filed on Feb. 23, 1999. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND 
     The Internet has rapidly changed the way people are starting to communicate and the Internet Service Provider has given rise to a rapidly growing service industry. The legacy post office mail and telephone system communication methods are rapidly being replaced by e-mail communication. The reason is simple; e-mail is both more convenient and less expensive than legacy mail and/or long distance charges. This is especially true for other country mail delivery or legacy telephone service. Before long, the facsimile machine will hardly be recognizable in its present form (see co-pending MIMS invention Serial No. 60/114,594). Even new telephones, and software operated on ISP platforms designed to use the Internet to reduce long distance charges are becoming more user friendly even though they are far from practical. However all of these new Internet communication systems still keep the e-mail address separate from the telephone numbers created by the legacy telephone companies. That is, many business cards now have to carry the telephone number, facsimile number, and e-mail address, pager number and even a 1-800 number to provide basic communication information to the recipient. At the same time, the communication bandwidth infrastructure such as, fiber optics cables, low orbit satellites, digital cellular telephones, and DSP is allowing the legacy telephone numbering system to grow at a rate it never anticipated. Some cities such as Dallas, Los Angeles, Atlanta, etc., have had to add new area codes over old area codes causing many customers to have different area codes at the same location. It is predicted that this situation will only get worse as more and more machines require their own telephone connection. In short, a more modern communication system is needed that has unlimited growth and is consistent with the new Internet Protocol systems. This invention describes such a system and will allow communication connection information in the future to use alpha-numeric strings which are easily understood by everybody all over the world and relate to all of the connection devices that an individual or business needs. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The new telephone system described herein uses and combines the basic infrastructure and methods of existing legacy telephone systems, pager systems, and e-mail systems. The new system refers to one key subsystem element as an E-phone (EP) to distinguish it from the legacy telephones and the other key subsystem element as a Client Service Provider Unit (CSPU) to distinguish it from the existing legacy telephone service systems. The CSP system can use both regular telephone and pager numbers to connect to another person or machine and it can use e-mail addresses to connect to another person or machine. However each EP has at least one e-mail address associated with it that has been verified as unique by an Internet Service Provider (ISP). The ISP could also be your local telephone company. Any person can then contact you using your e-mail address from their EP, computer, or web television and/or for many years in the future contact you using your old legacy telephone or pager numbers. Thus the preferred embodiment of the EP/CSP invention allows graceful and convenient conversion into the information age using a new alphanumeric system to replace the legacy numeric systems. Equally important the new system allows a seamless conversion to a universal worldwide “alpha-numeric” system that each country can use to eventually phase out their existing limited “area code” numbering system. That is, there will be no need for country codes once the EP/CSP system is in full operation. An early inconvenience for those not used to computers and keyboards, is the need for dialing alpha-numeric e-mail addresses rather than just numeric numbers. However the change to the mandatory ten numbers dialing system is conditioning most people for change already. Also, most of the new digital telephones allow individuals to store up to several hundred telephone numbers for automatic dialing so such an inconvenience will be more than offset by not having to remember separate facsimile, telephone, and e-mail information for the same person or company. For example, the EP/CSP system allows a person to have a single e-mail number for the telephone, and by adding “/F” or “/M”, or other suitable codes, at the end of the e-mail number, one can call the same person&#39;s facsimile or computer modem. Thus only one alphanumeric string is required on the business card or letterhead. Also, if you are in a company and have an extension you just add “/xxx” for the extension number. With this example you can quickly see that the new system will provide unlimited telephone capacity and eliminate the need for having separate 1-800, facsimile, e-mail, telephone, and pager directories which must be constantly updated. In fact the new system will automatically search for all five numbers each time you call and if the individual does not have the one you called it will tell you the individual does not have that service (e.g. 1-800 service). All the caller has to do is add “/xxx” for the desired service. For example, if one computer is calling another computer then the computer software will automatically add “/M” at the end of the e-mail number and the CSP will connect the caller to the computer line rather than the voice or facsimile line. The new system is also suited for the conversion to line sharing systems such as the one recently announced by Sprint. This is because the EP/CSP subsystem elements automatically listen for their coded address before allowing a connection to be made or a function delivered. This is part of the Internet protocol features that are incorporated into the EP/CSP system design. That is, the EP telephone will work with both dedicated lines systems and network systems such as WWW, the company Intranet or Extranet. Thus the EP/CSP system design truly anticipates and combines the various types of communication styles used today and foreseen in the 21 st  century. At the same time, it provides an alpha-numeric numbering system that would allow the individual or community to grow with out worrying about the CSP running out of telephone numbers just because more lines (actually, more connections) were needed. At the time of this invention there is estimated to be several hundred million unique e-mail addresses worldwide, and the number is growing at a rate of several 100,000 per day. To change our legacy telephone systems over to a method that takes advantage of the unique e-mail alphanumeric strings that are being created at very low cost would allow all types of communication systems to grow in an unlimited and less costly manner in the future. In other words, it just makes good sense and provides many opportunities for the telephone companies to get into the Internet service business and for telephone companies to offer Internet services. Services such as direct connect and Internet connect at two different rates (e.g., in FIG. 1 have direct connect over line  25  at one rate and Internet connect over line  26  at a lower rate). 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 shows a diagram depicting the major E-phone communication subsystem elements. Several types of E-phone units are shown by way of example representing the most common telephone system I/O units in use today. Also the four most common direct means of connecting telephones and data machines today are shown along with an Internet link which uses the same infrastructure lines as the direct connect lines but with a special protocol which allows universal packet communication between Internet Service Providers. An EP/CSP service provider central processor unit which could likely be one of the telephone companies such as AT&amp;T or World Com or even an ISP such as AOL. 
     FIG. 2 shows the CSP processing unit and the signal flow logic in more detail. Only those portions required to turn an existing legacy telephone service provider into an EP/CSP system are shown, the rest of the elements are grouped and put into the legacy telephone system Processing unit. 
     FIG. 3 shows an EP/CSP conversion process example that is at the heart of the CSP processing unit of the present invention. 
     FIG. 4 shows the EPU basic function elements and logic flow diagram showing a distinction between voice and data messages. Also, FIG. 4 is used to describe how data messages can be sent or received over the E-phone. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     Referring to FIG. 1, the basic EP and CSP subsystem elements are depicted and are comprised of the EP caller and receiver units  10 , the communication links  20 , and the communication Client Service Provider Unit (CSPU)  30 . The caller EP units  10  are the same as the receiver EP units  10  except in the case of one way pager EP unit. Although, any of the caller EP units  10 , can be used with any of the receiver EP units  10 . By way of example a caller may be using a WEB TV or computer telephone EP unit  10  and contact someone that is using a regular telephone EP unit  10 . Since this is understood, hereafter, we will not make a distinction between the caller and receiver EP units  10  unless it is required to make a distinction for the sake of clarity as is the case with the one way pager EP units. These E-phone Units (EPU)  10  are connected via  25  by one of several common direct connect communication links  20  ranging from the old copper wires to fiber optic cables and satellite links and of course this includes the Internet Backbones shown separately as connected by  26 . The wireless cellular network links are shown in  20  since they are the communication links of choice for non-urban systems and pager networks. One connection and communication session between two EPU  10  subsystem elements may use any combination or all four methods shown in  20 , depending on the locations of the EPU&#39;s being connected and the service requested. The communication link  20  is connected via  35  (direct connect) and  36  (Internet connect) to at least one CSP  30  which is used to condition the communication signals and determine the amount of money to charge the EPU  10  owner responsible for the call and service provided. 
     Referring now to FIG. 2, the CSPU  30  is further described to show how the signal from the EPU unit  10  received from one of the links  30  via  35  or  36  is processed using the new alpha-numeric protocols and methods. The CSPU  30  has a communication interface and modem unit (CMU)  310  that is the same as used in current telephone processing centers. This CMU  310  is connected via  315  to a special front end processing unit  320  that looks for the “@” symbol (or other selected special symbol if the preferred embodiment is not used) in the front end connection signal  35 . Please note that the symbol is used herein merely by way of example, and another symbol or group of symbols could be used in implementing the present invention. Note, the physical connection portion of the CMU  310  is not discussed since there are no changes required in this part of the legacy systems signal processing to implement the EP and CSP system described. If no “@” Symbol is detected in the front-end protocol connection signal  35  by unit  320  then the signal is sent via  325  directly to the existing legacy telephone Service Provider Unit for processing (LSPU)  350  for normal dialing and connection. That is, if a legacy protocol signal  35  is detected by  30 , the CSPU  30  operates just like in a LSPU of today. When an “@” symbol is detected in the front-end protocol the signal is sent via line  327  from unit  320  to the @String Conversion Processing Unit (@CPU)  330  for processing. The @CPU  330  primarily checks to find the legacy numbers associated with the @String received via line  327 . In addition the @CPU  330  determines which type of connection the EPU  10  caller requested. That is, the @CPU  330  determines if the caller EPU  110  requested to be connected to a computer modem, facsimile, pager, e-mail, extension, etc. In the preferred embodiment the “/xxx” symbols are used to make such choices since they are natural extensions of the Internet back slash “/” methods becoming so familiar to everyone. The suggested method is an advanced form of legacy front-end protocols like “*72” used to day to have special meaning such as, “call forwarding” to the LSPU  350  units. If the telephone companies want to use different standards, this does not change the role of the @CPU  330 , only the symbols which need to be detected. In other words this system lays right on top and at the front-end and back-end of the existing LSPU  350  systems. When a match between a legacy number is made at the @String the @CPU  330  will normally send the legacy number directly to the LSPU  350  via line  335 . In cases where there is no match but the e-mail address has been verified along with the type of connection requested (e.g. modem, facsimile, etc), the @CPU  330  sends the signal via line  337  to the E-telephone Dialer Processing Unit (EDPU)  340  to condition the signal for connection. The EDPU  340  is very similar, if not the same hardware, as most LSPU  350  systems since its role is to send both protocol and communication signals via line  345  to the CMU  310  unit for connection. The only difference is that the EDPU  340  knows that the receiver EPU  10  is using the new CSP alphanumeric system and thus there are many more signaling options available. The most notable would be communication over the Internet similar to the Internet telephones using a much lower price since the messages will be packet switched all the way rather than a dedicated line for the “last mile” on each end. Note that for many years the telephone companies may assign “Virtual” numbers to the various alpha-numeric strings in order to use the existing LSPU  350  systems for connection purposes. However when it comes to packet switching and Internet connections the email strings probably will be easier for the time-shared links such as networks. Again these are choices that do not change the nature of the invention and are considered to be options made available with the current overlay design of the preferred embodiment described herein. 
     Referring to FIG. 3, the @CPU  330  and CSP  30  is further described by way of a typical conversion example. In FIG. 3, an “@” detected signal is sent from the front-end processing unit  320  via line  327  to the CSP  30  @CPU unit  330  that has an Address Correlator Unit (ACU)  90  connected via line  93  to a Client Service Provider Database Unit (CSPDU)  91 , and via line  97  to a legacy number storage unit (LSU)  92 , and via line  98  to an e-mail alpha-numeric string storage unit  95 . The example shows that the ACU  90  receives a request to connect to alpha numeric C1C2@AOL.com/f (a facsimile number) via line  327 . The ACU  90  then cross-correlates with the CSPDU  91  and sends all the available legacy numbers to storage units  92  via line  97 , and the alpha-numeric storage unit  95  receives all the @strings via line  98 . Initially, only the “/F” number is sent to the LPSU  350  via line  335  even though it was determined that the individual being called also had a regular telephone number 01-571-3833, a modem number 01-214-631-9301, and a pager number 01-817475-2484 shown in storage unit  92 . In the example given if the LSU  92  was empty then the output would have been C1C2@AOL.com/f sent out on line  337 . The reason a complete correlation is done by the ACU  90  is for other options that might be exercised later in case the receiver EPU  10  fails to answer the connect signal in a predetermined length of time. The most obvious other options are predetermined requests to page the owner of the receiver EPU  10  or send a voice message to the receiver EPU  10  voice box. Such services are in common use today so the current invention makes it easy to fulfill such services and even add some new services. Services, like paging on demand by the caller EPU  10 . This could be done by using a special double back slash such as “//p” for a request by the caller EPU  10  to page the individual if they have a receiver EPU  10  page number, and there is no answer after a predetermined period of time. Also the request may be for a low cost Internet connection using lines  26  and  36  if a direct connection can not be made on lines  25  and  35 . Today no such demand options are available to the caller EPU  10 , only to the owner of the receiver EPU  10  are these options available plus they are not demand options but on or off options. These are just some of the advantage of combining all of the various legacy systems into a worldwide network. Note that the ACU  90  and CSPDU  91  units are really distributed units spread all over the world and connected by router networks used to keep the master data bases current just like the Internet systems use. However, with the technology today this is not such a difficult task and must be done anyway for the WWW traffic. The point is, this part of the system will most likely be distributed for several years to come even though it is depicted in this system as a simple data base CSPDU  91  and correlator ACU  90  unit. 
     Finally, referring to FIG. 4, the basic function elements of the EPU  10  are shown along with a signal logic flow diagram. The EPU  10  has an External Interface Unit (EIU)  105  connected to the communication link  20  via line(s)  25  for direct connect and  26  for Internet connect. The EIU  105  is shown connected to the Modem Unit (MU)  110  via line(s)  102  which may be the same or might be different just like the lines  25  or  26  may be the same or different. A power source  112  is connected to all the units but for simplicity is only shown connected to the EIU  105 . The EIU  105  and MU  110  are the basic communication elements and depending on if the EPU  10  is a computer, cellular telephone, WEB TV system or regular telephone each one has these two communication elements does not need to change. Also, most of the new telephones have a Digital Processing Unit (DPU)  120  connected to a Video Unit (VU)  140  and an Audio Unit (AU)  150  and all telephones have some sort of Keyboard Unit (KU)  130  (except possibly rotary dialers). All telephones also have unique code strings assigned either at the telephone end or at the CSP line connection  25  or  26  end. This unique string is represented by the E-phone string code storage unit (EPCSU)  170  that is shown connected to the DPU  120  via line  175 . To stay simple such things as ring circuits, off hook and busy signal detectors are included in the appropriate elements shown and are well known to those skilled in the art. 
     All of the basic function elements of FIG. 4 are available with the Nokia 9000 units and with any 1999 PC using the appropriate communication software package such as Communicator PRO. As in the case of the legacy service provider systems, LSPU  350 , the legacy system EPU&#39;s  10  have a Protocol overlay on the Front end (the caller function end) and the Back end (the receiver function end). On the Front end the user only has to learn how to type in alphanumeric strings, such as an e-mail address or a domain name, in addition to legacy communication numbers using the KU  130 . This caller string is then sent via  135  to the DPU  120  and appended after the EP unique code denoting the caller ID from the EPCSU  170  from those EPU  10  units that have that function performed at the EPU  10  location. Both of these signals are then sent directly from the DPU  120  via lines  115 , 102 , and  25  or  26  to the CSP  30  via line  35  or  36 . When standard legacy telephones are used such as are in most of the homes today the caller ID is appended at the CSP location. However, for purposes of clarity this description assumes it is performed at the EPU  10 . 
     For most people in this country this process is already becoming second nature because of the requirement to use computers in almost every aspect of every day life. On the Back end (the receiver function) the user can receive much more information with out having to have many different telephone or communication numbers and interconnect systems. That is, one can get e-mail, voice messages, facsimile messages all from one service provider and all from one message box. Now one has to sign up for multiple services to achieve this and still keep track of legacy telephone systems. In short all current EPU  10  subsystems could become more useful and simpler to use if a unified alphanumeric string system was adopted and implemented by one or more CSP companies. In fact the current invention would allow ISP companies such as AOL to get into the Communication business and allow the communication Companies, such as World Corn or AT&amp;T, to offer Internet services. Since Deregulation takes effect march 31 st  of 1999 this invention would open the door for many companies. Also it is worth noting that the current thrust of the telephone and handheld computer manufactures are to deliver EPU&#39;s that will allow the user to connect all of the legacy Internet, telephone, and Pager service providers together while keeping the Protocol systems separate. This invention meets the same objectives by overlaying a new alphanumeric string system compatible with all of the existing legacy communication systems. Consequently a much simpler EPU is possible with much more services available to the EPU owner. 
     Also, FIG. 4 is used to describe how data messages can be sent or received over the E-phone. These are features that are not currently available in the legacy telephone system. The features are available using the new breed of combination hand held computers/telephone units such as the Nokia 9000 communicator series or with modern telephone software designed for PC systems such as Communicator PRO. However all of these other systems assume that the telephone number is different than the e-mail address and handle e-mail communications and telephone communication in two entirely different modes. When making telephone calls the systems use the legacy telephone system protocols and methods and when performing e-mail communication they use legacy e-mail protocols and methods, when contacting someone by pager, the pager numbering system and protocol are used. The E-phone system allows these functions to be combined and greatly simplify the communication process for the individual and will also simplify the communication systems of the future compared to the multi-legacy systems of today. 
     Changes may be made in the steps or sequence of steps of the construction or operation or mode methods described herein with out departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention as defined in the following claims.