Patent ID: 8078155

Claim:
A method of providing call processing for group conferencing, comprising: associating cellular telephone numbers assigned to a predetermined group of subscriber cellular devices with a routable telephone number in a database whereby calls to the routable telephone number are routed to a gateway mobile switching center of a cellular service provider; receiving a first call placed to the routable telephone number with the gateway mobile switching center; accessing the database and retrieving the telephone numbers assigned to the group of cellular subscriber devices and associated with the routable telephone number; determining which subscriber devices are within the geographical coverage area of the cellular service provider; initiating calls to the cellular telephone numbers assigned to the group of cellular subscriber devices of the cellular subscriber devices in the cellular service provider's geographical coverage area; initiating a ring timer; detecting a first answer from at least one of the called cellular subscriber devices; connecting the first call to the first answering cellular subscriber device with a conference bridge; detecting one or more subsequent answers from at least one of the called cellular subscriber devices; and connecting cellular subscriber devices from the group of cellular subscriber devices that answer after the first answering cellular subscriber device and before the ring timer lapses.