Sprint Communications Comapny L.p.

Constance Ann DeWitt

Keith Jarett

Karen Harden Miller

Victor Lee Norman

William Brian Sink

Ravi Chander Rajagopal

A call referral system (10) for use in a telecommunications network (12) that permits a called party (16) to control the number and treatment of incoming calls. The call referral system includes a switch (34) for receiving calls from calling parties(14) and for connecting the calls to the called party. The call referral system includes a routing monitor computer (40) coupled with the switch for monitoring the connection of the calls to the called party. The monitoring computer receives and stores a gate size selected by the called party indicating the maximum number of calls the called party wishes to simultaneously handle through each of its gates. The gates are comprised of single destination telephone numbers or groups of destination telephone numbers to the various destinations (17 & 18, 32).

Called party control of incoming calls

In a telecommunications network operable for routing calls such as 800 calls, to a plurality of customer destinations, a system allows the customer to configure the routing of calls by entering selected call routing criteria such as a call-routing map associated with a time frame for implementation thereof included as part of an overall routing plan. The routing map includes the desired allocation of calls placed from a customer defined origination region to selected ones of the customer's call receiving destinations. Using the customer supplied criteria, the system then composes a set of call-handling statements, also called time features, which the network then compiles into an executable routing scheme for translating the dialed number into the physical number associated with the selected customer destination.

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Kansas City, MO, United States of America

Constance Ann DeWitt