Methods and devices for establishing an area party line service for telephone calls
US7551733B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jun 24, 2003 |
| Grant date | Jun 23, 2009 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Apr 24, 2026 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04M3/56
- WIPO fieldTelecommunications
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Methods and devices establish an area party line for telephone calls to provide a geographically based chat forum via a telephone. One method receives telephone calls at a local call station where the telephone calls may be landline calls from callers serviced by the local call station, wireless phone calls from users who are currently located in proximity to the local call station, and/or long distance calls from callers who have dialed into the local call station using an area code and exchange. Callers provide an indication of an area party line, such as a star code, and the local call station bridges the calls together. Another method receives telephone calls at a central call station, where the telephone calls are directed to the central call bridging station from a local call station, and the central call bridging station bridges the callers together depending upon the local call station that the calls are transferred from. The callers may be local callers, long distance callers, or wireless callers to the local call station.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.