Lucent Technologies Inc.

Joe Ping Zhou

Donna Michaels Sand

David Vollman

Laurel Ann Salvador

Paul A Noel

Bruce M Riley

David W Vollman

Donna M Sand

Laurel Salvador

In a telecommunications system (), a method and apparatus for buffering the initial speech of an initial speaker in a push-to-talk call is disclosed. The method includes the steps of determining at least one participant or group to call (), sending a call request to the at least one participant or group (), determining if the at least one participant or group is registered with the telecommunications system, notifying the initial speaker to begin speaking after determining at least one participant is registered with the telecommunications system but prior to connecting all called parties, receiving and digitizing voice packets from the initial speaker, storing the digitized data packets in a storage medium and transmitting the digitized voice packets when a predetermined packet transmission triggering event occurs. The apparatus for buffering the initial speech burst of an initial speaker in a call includes a first server () and a second server () communicatively connected to the first server. The second server is programmed to execute the steps of the method described above.

Method and apparatus for decreasing perceived push-to-talk call set-up time using a buffer for initial speech burst

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Naperville, IL, United States of America

Joe Ping Zhou