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Telephone voice-ringing using a transmitted voice announcement
| Details |
Inventors: Milewski, Allen E.; Smith, Thomas M.;
Assignee: AT&T Corp. (New York, NY)
Primary Examiner: Tsang; Fan
Assistant Examiner: Escalante; Ovidio
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Kenyon & Kenyon
A voice-ringing system is provided. The traditional telephone ring for notifying a called party of an incoming phone call is replaced by a short verbal announcement that is provided by the calling party when placing the phone call. In a manner similar to traditional telephone ringing, the announcement is repeated until the call is answered or until the caller abandons the unanswered call. One implementation for the voice-ringing system is to utilize the Internet as a signaling channel. The calling party establishes a call by utilizing a communications device that is connected to both the Internet and to a voice network. The verbal announcement is sent to the called party as a signal transmitted over the Internet. The called party hears the voice ring on a communications device that is also connected to both the Internet and a voice network. When the called party indicates that the call should be accepted, a return signal is sent to the calling party's communication device. The calling party's communication device then establishes an end-to-end call on the voice network. |
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION The drawbacks in the prior art are overcome by the present invention for a voice-ringing system.
In accordance with the present invention, the traditional telephone ring for notifying a called party about an incoming phone call is replaced by a short verbal announcement that is provided by the calling party when placing the phone call.
The called party, instead of being alerted to the telephone call by a ringing sound, would hear the verbal announcement as provided by the caller.
For example, the called party may hear, "Hi, this is Joan.
I just have a quick question.
" In a manner similar to traditional telephone ringing, the announcement is repeated until the call is answered or until the caller abandons the unanswered call.
One implementation for the voice-ringing system of the present invention is to utilize the Internet as a signaling channel.
The calling party establishes a phone call by utilizing a communications device that is connected to both the Internet and to a voice network.
The verbal announcement is transmitted to the called party's communications device as a signal transmitted over the Internet.
The called party hears the verbal announcement, i.
e.
, voice-ring, on a communications device that is also connected to both the Internet and a voice network.
When the called party indicates that the call should be accepted, a return signal is sent to the calling party's communication device.
When the return signal is received, the calling party's communication device establishes an end-to-end call on the voice network.
In this manner, the present invention provides advantages for both the called party and the calling party.
For the called party, voice-ringing extends the basis of call-screening from the information currently available, such as the caller's originating phone number and/or name, to include many additional kinds of information.
Because the call-type and social information conveyed in a voice-ring can assist the called party in the decision to answer the call, it is likely that more call-s that the called party wants to engage in, and has the time to engage in, will be answered
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