Telecommunication system using message presentation during a ringing signal period

Abstract

Marketing of goods and services on telephone lines and during a period from the commencement of a telephone call to the receipt and acceptance of that call (quiescent period) when the recipient of the call actuates his or her telephone. This quiescent period of time, during which a ringing signal is normally generated, is used for presentation of advertising or promotional messages, primarily to a caller, although it can be delivered to the recipient of the call, or both. In addition, the system provides for the use of messages during the normal ringing cycle time to effectively replace the ringing signal. The particular advertising or promotional message can be selected for a certain area, such as an area covered by a telephone switchboard or a certain party or characteristics of that party. In this way each individual telephone switchboard is capable of presenting a message different from the next telephone switchboard.

Description

RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application is based on subject matter presented in and claims priority from a provisional patent application Ser. No. 60 / 283,796, filed Apr. 12, 2001, for a Telecommunications System. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Field of the Invention [0003] This invention relates in general to certain new and useful improvements in telecommunication systems, and more particularly to telecommunication systems which rely upon use of promotional or advertising message presentation or other message presentation during a normal ringing cycle. [0004] 2. Brief Description of Related Art [0005] In most telephone systems throughout the world, initiation of a telephone call is achieved by a caller generating a dial tone at his or telephone and that dial tone or voltage is then used and / or received by a telephone switching station, which selects the telephone corresponding to a dialed or inserted telephone number. Thus, if a caller dials the telephone number 12345, t...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0030] As an auxiliary advantage of the present invention, the organization which desires to incorporate an advertising or promotional message in place of all or portions of the ring-back, or even overlaying the message on the ring-back signal, of the telephone caller can quickly gather experience in how to provide targeted advertising or promotional messages. Thus, for example, this organization can determine where and how much money would have to be expended in order to obtain a desired result from its publicity. Further, company data generated about buying patterns and customer information could be quite valuable to any company attempting to target a particular marketing promotional message.

[0031] In a normal telephone communication system, a caller initiating a telephone call will initially generate a signal indicative of a call in process. The signal is transmitted to the central switching station of the telephone recipient, and that central switching station of the telephone recipient then generates the ringing signal so that the telephone recipient will recognize the presence of an awaiting telephone call. The second switching station transmits an out-of-band signal, as previously mentioned, on the SS7 line advising the first telephone switching station to generate a ring-back signal to the caller. The first switching station will thereupon generate that ring-back signal.

[0032] The system of the present invention utilizes that conventional switching arrangement and ringing signal and ring-back signal generation system. However, the system of the present invention can be broadly described as a telephone located at a first location, such as a telephone caller's location. A signal is generated to a central switching office associated with that telephone caller's location. The call in process and message or data signal is then connected to an antenna or similar transmitter via a satellite to a receiving station. The signal at the receiving station is then sent to a second central switching office. Alternatively, the message received at the first central switching office from the initiating telephone call location can be transmitted terrestrially with the use of a transmitting antenna in combination with a receiving antenna located in proximity to the second central switching office.

[0033] A messaging device is connected to the second central switching office and a similar messaging device is connected to the first central switching office. The message to be delivered to the telephone caller is actually generated by the messaging device associated with the first central office switching station, although it could be generated at the second switching station, if preferred. Moreover, the telephone call from the caller is then sent to a telephone at a second location, such as a receiving location. The second central switching office generates a ringing signal for that second location, and also generates the out-of-band signal to cause generation of the ring-back signal. The second station, however, sends the data message to that first location, via the first switching station. However, this arrangement can be altered, if desired, so that the message generation could occur at the first switching station or the like.

[0034] In the meantime, in place of, or in addition to, the ringing signal, the first central switching office will cause a message, such as an advertising or promotional message from the second messaging device to be delivered, back through the telecommunication link, to the first central switching office and back to the telephone caller, as aforesaid. Thus, and in this way, the caller at the first location will hear the promotional or advertising message.

[0035] The present invention also provides a telephone communication system similar to that previously described, except with cellular telephones. Thus, and in this case, the party initiating the telephone call may be using a cellular telephone system, or otherwise, the recipient party receiving the call may be operating with a cellular telephone system. In like manner, a caller using a hard-wired telephone could also access a receiving party using a cellular telephone. A messaging device similar to that previously described would form part of or would be associated with the telephone switching stations and the remainder of the system would be similar to that previously described.

Problems solved by technology

There is, by telephone design, a delay which arises between the completion of a dialing process and the initiation of a first ring of a ringing sequence.

Although that time period may be short, perhaps no more than four to six seconds, depending upon the particular telephone system, that time is merely a wasted time period in which the caller must await an initiation of a ringing signal.

However, most callers immediately become accustomed to the fact that there is a time delay, and hence this time delay is expected with little or no consideration being given to that delay.

The Sleevi patent, however, is specifically limited to a land based or so-called hard-wired network and does not include more modern forms of telecommunication which have become available since the time of the Sleevi patent.

Moreover, Sleevi did not envision the selective selec-1Xtion of messages depending upon a particular caller and which selected message was designed to conform to or meet the purchasing information or other criteria of a particular customer.

Thus, Sleevi was deficient in this regard, as well as in other areas.

Although Streitzel does provide for advertising and promotional messages used in a cellular communication, it does so with several limitations not necessarily overcome by the Sleevi patent.

However, that message is generated with the use of a time delay before the actual ringing signal is initiated.

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