Method of routing emergency calls

US6067356A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• ALCATEL · FR

Inventors

• Wolfgang Lautenschlager · Diez, DE
• Hartmut Weik · Stuttgart, DE
• Lothar Krank · Ditzingen, DE
• Uwe Stahl · Leonberg, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Sep 17, 1998
• Grant date: May 23, 2000
• Expiry date: Sep 17, 2018

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H04Q2213/13396
• WIPO field: Telecommunications
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A method of routing a call, especially an emergency call made to a uniform regional or national central phone call number, which is made by a telecommunications (TC) subscriber in a publicly accessible digital TC network, to the respective geographically responsible call center, includes the steps of transmitting, as part of a calling signal, an identification of the TC subscriber making the call, using the subscriber identification to retrieve, from a database containing at least a geographic location associated with each subscriber, the location of the calling subscriber, selecting a responsible call center nearest the location of the calling subscriber, and routing the call from the subscriber to the nearest responsible call center. The method has the advantage that, in spite of possible breakdown of previous associations between telephone number prefixes and geographic locations, the subscriber's location can be reliably determined with the help of a central calling number/location data base, and the call can be routed to the respective geographically responsible call center.