Verizon Services Corporation

Nynex Science & Technology, Inc.

Menno Aartsen

Suzi Levas

Craig L Reding

Thea Turner

Mike Metaxas

Constance Carlson

Jan Stein

Rao Tanuku

Lisa M Amberger

Craig Reding

Methods and apparatus for providing operator services to callers in a fully or partially automated manner are disclosed. In addition, the present invention is directed to methods and apparatus for providing new telephone services, e.g., the forwarding of messages to non-published telephone number customers. It is also directed to methods and apparatus that can be used to detect, report and correct operator input errors. Automated, e.g., unmanned, apparatus of the present invention are capable of interfacing with conventional telephone switches using known operator protocols. This allows automated devices of the present invention to appear to existing telephone switches as manned operator positions capable of servicing telephone calls. In accordance with the present invention, the unmanned apparatus of the present invention is assigned one or more operator position identifiers conventionally used to identify manned operator positions. The interaction of the automated apparatus of the present invention and a telephone switch involves the use of the assigned operator position identifiers to identify the apparatus of the present invention to the switch as one or more operational operator positions. Once logged in with the telephone switch, the apparatus of the present invention can service calls normally handled by human operators, without the need for a human operator's involvement.

Methods and apparatus for automating the servicing of telephone calls including requesting directional and/or other types of information

Methods and apparatus for automating the telephone operator services

Methods and apparatus for implementing a telephone communication system incorporating pager features are described. In accordance with the present invention, when a call to a system subscriber is received, the subscriber is contacted by the telephone switch which receives the call via the use of a pager message, e.g., using a conventional pager system. If the subscriber has a pager module of the present invention, which receives the pager message directed to the subscriber inserted into an enhanced telephone of the present invention, the pager module will automatically initiate a call to the switch where the waiting call is being held or &ldquo;parked&rdquo;. The automatically placed call will result in a connection between the switch and called party being established over conventional telephone lines. The connection with the switch is thus established automatically in a manner that is transparent to the subscriber. After verifying the identify of the responding party, the calling and called parties are connected. A signal from the contacted switch may be used to cause the enhanced telephone used to establish the connection with the switch to ring thereby signal the receipt of a call to the telephone subscriber. Because the methods and apparatus of the present invention can be implemented using pager technology and land-line telephones, many of the cost, privacy, power consumption, and regional compatibility problems encountered when using current cellular telephones are avoided.

Enhanced telephone communication methods and apparatus incorporating pager features

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Arlington, VA, United States of America

Menno Aartsen