At+t Corp.

At&t Bell Laboratories

Alcatel-Lucent USA Inc.

Nicholas M DeVito

Douglas William Varney

Randall L Brown

James L Turner

Tushar Ramesh Shah

David A Snyder

Ted Moulos

William E Hagerman

Douglas Craig Kroupa

Gregory P Gibson

Paul M Simek

Amit A Patel

Paul E Renn

Joseph M Brozovich

A method and apparatus for identifying a caller who does not provide caller identification on an unanswered call. The caller is asked to record his/her name (or some other characteristic utterance). If the call is unanswered, the record is retained and can be accessed by the called party when that party requests his/her stored voice mail. Advantageously, even on unanswered calls, the identity of the caller can be presented to the called party when that called party requests stored voice mail messages, even if the calling party has private service.

Enhanced private call screening

An arrangement for selectively routing traffic to alternate destinations. If the network or switch for accessing the primary destination is inaccessible (i.e., out of service), as opposed to simply being busy, calls are routed to an alternate destination; however, if the primary destination is simply busy, calls are not routed to any alternate destination. This is useful, for example, for emergency (E911) calls which are routed to alternate emergency bureaus only if the network or switch for accessing the home bureau is out of service. Alternatively, the tandem switch can select an alternate toll carrier on the basis of allocation of traffic to different alternate toll carriers. The same general kind of arrangement can be used to route calls to an alternate toll carrier if the preferred toll carrier selected by the customer is not accessible.

Routing calls destined for inaccessible destinations

A line-based 911 system and method that completes an emergency call from a telephone to a PSAP comprising a multiplicity of operator stations connected by individual lines to a telephone switching system. An emergency call is routed to the termination ports of the switching system associated with a PSAP. Each of the termination ports is connected to one of the multiplicity of operator stations via its associated line, thereby establishing a path from the telephone to the operator station, the CPN of the calling telephone is delivered to the selected operator station and the operator station obtains location information of the telephone in accordance with the CPN, which is then displayed.

Line-based public safety answering point

Growing community of inventors

Naperville, IL, United States of America

Nicholas M DeVito