At&t Bell Laboratories

American Telephone & Telegraph Co., At&t Bell Laboratories

Joseph V Fodale

Karrie Jo Hanson

Susan M Zoccolillo

Robert A Koch

Ronald E Large

Nancy A Catron

Paramdeep S Sahni

Alan Ira Schwartz

Richard J Famulare

This invention relates to methods of establishing facsimile (fax) connections. If a call is originated from a fax source and the destination is a voice station, then the call will be automatically redirected to a fax machine designated to receive fax messages for the voice station. A fax call is detected by a class of service indication in a local switching office, or by having a number forwarded to a toll office from a local office by Automatic Number Identification (ANI) of the caller that is one of a list of fax numbers. When it is determined that a call is a fax call, a fax indicator is sent with Common Channel Signaling (CCS) messages for that call. If a call with a fax indicator is received in a destination switching office, then the destination office checks to see if the called number is a fax number; if not, translation is made to find the number of a fax station for serving fax calls to the called number, and the call is completed to that fax station. Advantageously, customers need not know a fax number to transmit a fax message to an intended recipient.

Establishment of facsimile calls

This invention relates to methods of establishing facsimile (fax) connections. When it is determined that a call is a fax call, a fax indicator is sent with Common Channel Signaling (CCS) messages for that call. If a call with a fax indicator is received in a destination switching office, then the destination office checks to see if the called number is a fax number; if not, translation is made to find the number of a fax station for serving fax calls to the called number, and the call is completed to that fax station. Fax calls may be recognized by a fax class mark in an originating message from an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) line or a dialed prefix such as #, #3, or an alternative common carrier code (10XXX) from an ordinary line. Calls may be automatically redirected to a store and forward system on busy or no answer, routed to one of a plurality of alternative destinations based on the day and time, junk fax calls may be screened, and a fax message waiting lamp on the called (voice) destination may be operated. For international calls, a translation from voice to fax may be made at an egress gateway switch; the fax calls may also be automatically routed over low distortion international transmission facilities.

Special service call routing

Method and apparatus is disclosed for selectively disallowing and allowing the extension of a call originated by a calling customer through a toll telecommunications network when the billing number involved with the call has a predetermined billing status such as delinquent payment. The toll network includes a toll office for switching calls between local telephone networks. The toll network also includes a data base having a list of delinquent payment billing numbers. In response to a call originated by a calling customer, the toll office sends the billing number involved with the call received from the local network to the data base. When the billing number involved with the call is in a list of billing numbers having a delinquent payment status, a 'deny call' reply message is returned to the toll office to disallow the extension of the call through the toll network. The toll office also announces to the calling customer the disallowance of the call to discourage further attempts through the network. The toll office may include or utilize a remotely located operator system to process calls by offering calling customers alternate billing arrangements when the call is disallowed. A 'call allow' reply message from the data base is returned to the operator system to process an operator assisted call.

Method and apparatus for disallowing the extension of a call through a

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Lincroft, NJ, United States of America

Joseph V Fodale