Patent ID: 8422648

Claim:
A method for providing text messaging services to subscribers in a telecommunications network, each of said subscribers having subscriber equipment comprising a telephone and a television equipment, said method comprising the steps of: receiving first key stroke data corresponding to at least one text character associated with a text message, said first key stroke data having been input by said subscriber on a telephone; providing first text prediction data, obtained from lookup of said first key stroke data in a text prediction database, for display via said television equipment, said first text prediction data comprising predicted text for said at least one text character in said text message being created; maintaining a store of subscriber equipment identifiers for subscribers having access to said text messaging services in said network, said identifiers comprising for each subscriber, a telephony identifier associated with the telephone of the subscriber, and a visual display output device identifier associated with the television equipment of the subscriber; prior to receipt of said first key stroke data, receiving a first subscriber equipment identifier associated with one of said telephone and said television equipment of said subscriber; in response to receipt of said first subscriber equipment identifier, determining from said store a second subscriber identifier associated with the other of said telephone and said television equipment of said subscriber; and contacting said other of said telephone and said television equipment using said second subscriber identifier of said subscriber whereby to initiate text messaging services for said subscriber in said network.