Patent ID: 7953388

Claim:
In wireless communications network that provides wireless communications services, a method of redirecting a call placed to a wireless subscriber's number, to a second number, comprising the steps of: receiving at a home location register data base a query message from a gateway mobile switching center; returning a response message from the home location register data base to the gateway mobile switching center, the response message having at least information as to how and where to route a call that is to be forwarded; sending from the home location register data base to the gateway mobile switching center a phone number to which the call is to be forwarded, and information that identifies a mobile switching center or a geographic division thereof that the call would have been routed to but for the forwarding of the call; and routing the call directly to a switch associated with the phone number instead of to the mobile switching center; and billing for forwarded calls by retrieving identity and location of a switching system that would have been required to route the call to a number to which calls to a mobile phone number are to be routed and, by routing the call from the gateway mobile switching center that received the call, around the mobile switching center that would normally accept calls for the mobile phone number; wherein the gateway mobile switching center forwards the call to another switch, with call forwarding information and call origination data from the home location register data base so that the call is properly routed and billed by respectively associated service providers; wherein, by determining from the home location register data base that a call to a mobile telephone is to be routed to a particular number, and by obtaining an identity of the mobile switching center that would have otherwise received the call and which then would have forwarded the call, the call is routed to its destination and an appropriate service charge is levied on the subscriber by determining a path that the call would have been forwarded over, if the call would have originated from a subscriber's mobile telephone.