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

Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson (publ)

Louis M Taff

James William Borchering

Hans Nordin

Michael E Diesel

A system to stop call looping in a communications network comprises a switch to receive incoming calls, a server operatively connected to the switch, and a call control function running on the server. The call control function is programmed to determine if incoming calls, received at the switch and directed to a called number, are possible looped calls. If the call control function determines that a given incoming call is a possible looped call of a previous call, then it delays the forwarding of the incoming call to the called number.

System and method to stop call looping

A method of discouraging the completion of certain classes of calls including wrong-number calls. Incoming calls from calling parties not included on a customer-specified screening list are first connected to an appropriate advisory announcement. Such calls are advantageously not extended to the customer station if the calling party disconnects within a specified time of receiving the announcement. To limit the delay of calling parties, the announcement is bypassed for callers included on the screening list and may be quickly interrupted by the transmission of a single, dual tone multifrequency digit from the calling station.

Method of discouraging the completion of wrong-number calls

A call forwarding method that allows the called party to selectively forward individual alerting calls based, for example, on the calling party identity or on how busy the called party is at any given time, but without requiring the called party to first answer the calls. The called party can effect the transfer even though engaged in conversation with someone else.

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Warrenville, IL, United States of America

Louis M Taff