Metaswitch Networks Limited

Chris Mairs

Felix Palmer

Shaun Crampton

David Drysdale

Philip Pearl

Liz Rice

Alan Cook

Jon Rowland

Lionel James Jerome Lee

Doug Currie

Alex Pollitt

Paul John Brittain

Martin Taylor

Piers Daniel Finlayson

A method of establishing a communications session for communication of data with respect to a telephony user device and at least one other user device in a data communications network. Communications are conducted with a server system. The communications comprise a client-server connection. Call party details of a telephone call are transmitted to the server system in the communications. The telephone call involves at least the telephony user device, as a first telephony user device involved in the call, and a second telephony user device involved in the call. The call party details including a first identity associated with the first telephony user device and a second identity associated with the second telephony user device.

Systems and methods of call-based data communication

Measures for transferring an established communication session in a telecommunications network, the communication session being established between one of a plurality of communication clients associated with a user and a remote device associated with a remote party. At a call control system located in the signaling path for the established communication session, a communication session transfer request is received from a device associated with the user, the communication session transfer request having been generated by and transmitted from the device. Transfer of the established communication session from the one communication client in the plurality of communication clients to another communication client in the plurality of communication clients is initiated at the call control system. The transfer is conducted on the basis of a preconfigured data set, specific to the user, identifying one or more of the plurality of communication clients associated with the user.

Methods and apparatus for transferring an established communication session in a telecommunications network

Communications equipment associated with a calling party in a telecommunications network has a telephony function for handling telephone calls and a data communication application for handling data communication sessions. The telephony function and the data communication application have an associated first and second user interface respectively. A called party identifier is collected via the second user interface in response to user input at the communications equipment. A telephone call is set up between the calling party and the called party using the telephony function on the basis of the collected called party identifier. Data communication session setup information, comprising information identifying the called party, is transmitted on the basis of the collected called party identifier. The data communication session setup information is for establishing a data communication session separate from the telephone call for the communication of data between the calling party and the called party.

Controlling communications equipment

A method of establishing a communications session for communication of data with respect to at least two user devices in a data communications network. A client-server connection request is received from at least one of the at least two user devices. Call party details of a telephone call are received. The telephone call involves at least a first telephony user device and a second telephony user device. The call party details include a first identity associated with the first telephony user device and a second identity associated with the second telephony user device. At least one of the first and second identities comprises a telephone dialing number. A separate communications session is established on the basis of the first and second identities received in the call party details.

Data communication

Methods, apparatus and computer program products for indicating availability in a telecommunications network are provided. An availability alerting service is initiated in response to a trigger associated with non-completion of an initial call from a calling party to a called party, the availability alerting service provides the calling party with availability alert information to solicit a follow-up call from the calling party when the called party has a given availability state after the initial call. The availability alerting service detects a first availability status change after initiation of the alerting service, and transmits a first availability update message to the calling party to solicit the follow-up call. A second availability status change is detected, subsequent to the first availability status change, and a second availability update message is transmitted to the calling party to inhibit the follow-up call.

Processing telephone calls

A telephony user device capable of establishing a communications session for communication of data with respect to at least one other device in a data communications network, the telephony user device being adapted to provide a reconfigurable graphical user interface, establish a telephone call with a service provider, establish a separate communications session, separate from the telephone call, for the transfer of data to/from the at least one other device, on the basis of one or more call party details associated with the telephone call, and reconfigure at least a first part of the graphical user interface according to configuration data determined by the service provider and received in the separate communication session.

A telephony user device capable of establishing a communications session for communication of data in a data communications network, the telephony user device including a processing system configured to provide a reconfigurable graphical user interface, establish a telephone call with a voicemail system, establish a separate communications session, separate from the telephone call, for the transfer of data to/from the telephony user device, on the basis of one or more call party details associated with the telephone call, and reconfigure at least a part of the graphical user interface in accordance with configuration data received via the separate communication session, the configuration data relating to and/or being derived from the voicemail system.

A method of establishing a communications session for communication of data with respect to at least two user devices in a data communications network. Call party details of a telephone call are received. The telephone call involves at least a first telephony user device and a second telephony user device. The call party details include a first identity associated with the first telephony user device and a second identity associated with the second telephony user device. At least one of the first and second identities comprises a telephone dialing number. A separate communications session is established on the basis of the first and second identities received in the call party details. The communications session is separate from the telephone call, for the communication of data to and/or from the at least two user devices.

A method of establishing a communications session for data with respect to at least two user devices in a packet switched communications network in parallel to a voice session via a circuit switched network. Call party details of a telephony call are received. The telephony call involves at least a first telephony user device and a second telephony user device. The call party details include a first identity associated with the first telephony user device and a second identity associated with the second telephony user device. A separate communications session is established on the basis of the first and second identities received in the call party details and depending on the capabilities of the user devices. The communications session is separate from the telephone call, for the communication of data to and/or from at least two user devices.

Call party details of a telephone call involving first and second telephony user devices are received. The call party details include first and second identities associated with the first and second telephony user devices respectively. A client-server connection request is received from, and a client-server connection is established with, one of the user devices. A session for the communication of data to and/or from the user devices is established separately from the telephone call on the basis of the first and second identities. The receipt of pre-configured user data by the one of the user devices is enabled via the client-server connection. The pre-configured user data has been specified by a user of another of the user devices prior to the establishment of the telephone call as data for receipt by other user devices during telephone calls conducted by the user.

System and method for establishing data communication using pre-configured user data

A method and apparatus for processing telephone calls in a packet-based telephony service is disclosed. A store of telephone party identifiers is maintained for multi-service users having access to the packet-based telephony service and an alternate telephony service. Incoming signaling information for telephone calls in the packet-based telephony service is monitored and outgoing signaling information may be altered with reference to the store. An alteration may involve replacing telephony party identification data associated with one telephony service for telephony party identification data associated with another telephony service. The invention allows a multi-service user to be consistently identified by other telephony users by a single telephony party identifier instead of one telephony party identifier for each service they subscribe to. Further, a multi-service user can be identified at the call destination by a single telephony party identifier, irrespective of which telephony service is used to make the call.

Telephone call processing method and apparatus

A method for providing text messaging services to subscribers in a telecommunications network is presented. Each of the subscribers has subscriber equipment that includes a telephone and television equipment. The method includes receiving first key stroke data corresponding to at least one text character associated with a text message, the first key stroke data having been input by the subscriber on a telephone, and providing first text prediction data, obtained from a lookup of the first key stroke data in a text prediction database, for display via the television equipment, the first text prediction data including predicted text for the text character in the text message being created.

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Enfield, United Kingdom

Chris Mairs