Patent ID: 7764950

Claim:
An apparatus for providing advanced voice services in a wireless network, comprising: a wireless network for making calls between handsets, wherein the calls are initiated by call setup and in-band signaling within the wireless network and voice frames for the calls are switched between the handsets by at least one mobile switching center across bearer paths in the wireless network; and a real-time exchange that interfaces to at least one mobile switching center in the wireless network to provide advanced voice services therein, without requiring any changes to the mobile switching center or other equipment of the wireless network to provide the advanced voice services; wherein both the real-time exchange and the handsets that use the advanced voice services communicate with each other using the call setup and in-band signaling within the wireless network, such that at least one mobile switching center routes an originating leg of the advanced voice services from an originating mobile to the real-time exchange, the real-time exchange initiates one or more terminating legs of the advanced voice services to one or more terminating mobiles through at least one mobile switching center, and the real-time exchange switches the voice frames for the advanced voice services from the originating handset to the terminating handsets across the bearer paths and through at least one mobile switching center that switches the voice frames for both the calls and the advanced voice services in the wireless network; wherein the handsets are pre-provisioned for the advanced voice services before being delivered to a customer in order to reduce customer interaction during activation of the handsets for use in the network; wherein the handset's number is changed during activation by contacting a customer service representative to have the number changed; and wherein the customer service representative invokes a function within the network to change the number associated with the handset to a new number and the real-time exchange transmits a “reconfiguration” message to the handset that causes the handset to change its number to the new number.