At&t Information Systems Inc.

American Telephone and Telegraph, Co.

At&t Company

At&t Bell Laboratories

At&t Technologies, Inc.

Vincent D Vanacore

Merle F Compton

Brian W Walsh

Carla F Reece

A call-load control arrangement for a first call-answering center, such as an E911 service PSAP, causes calls destined for the first center and not yet routed thereto to be rerouted by a central office from the central office directly to a second, alternate, call-answering center while the first center is in call overload. A function monitors current parameters of call-answering performance of the first center and periodically compares them against predetermined criteria of acceptable call-answering performance to determine whether call overload exists. In the E911 service PSAP, the function automatically closes and opens a switch to activate and deactivate the 'night-service' or 'trunk make-busy' link to cause the central office respectively to reroute calls away from, or to route calls to, the PSAP.

Call-load-control arrangement for an emergency-call-answering center

An emergency call service system, such as an E911 system, provides service system personnel with the addresses of abandoned calls to facilitate abandoned call follow-up. When a call comes in to a '911' ANI controller (21), the calling number is recorded. If the call is abandoned prior to being assigned by ACD 23 to an agent position (27-28) for being answered, an abandoned call ALI function (25) is invoked to obtain information pertaining to the calling number from a database (20), similarly to a non-abandoned call. When obtained, the information is displayed on equipment (29) such as a printer, terminal, or PC, to make it available to system personnel for use in following up on the call. The ANI controller serves both '911' emergency calls and emergency call-handling agents as well as other calls and other users, by switching the emergency calls to the agents and switching the other calls to the other users.

Arrangement for obtaining information about abandoned calls

The disclosed PBX integrity arrangement utilizes a specialized processing operation to provide an integrity check for communication devices and trunk facilities connected to a PBX. The integrity check determines (1) whether a user of a device or a trunk facility is permitted access to one or more PBX operations or (2) whether the PBX operation meets expected conventional PBX call establishment conditions. If access is prohibited or an atypical condition is present, this access or condition may indicate permission tampering, device or trunk facility misuse, malfunction or unauthorized PBX user activity. The occurrence of any one of the above conditions produces an immediate response which either remedies the occurrence or provides notification of the occurrence of the condition to a PBX administrator.

PBX integrity arrangement for maintaining the functional integrity of

An automatic call coverage feature arrangement for unattended PBX stations including attendant consoles. When an incoming call is received at an unattended station, a control processor monitors the number of ring cycles at the called station. The control processor automatically diverts the incoming call to a prescribed coverage station or facility following a prescribed number of ring cycles. Concurrently, the control processor activates an indicator to indicate that the feature is active. Thereafter, the control processor automatically diverts all subsequently received incoming calls from the unattended PBX station to the coverage station or facility. This feature does not require manual activation by a subscriber or an attendant, but is automatically activated in response to a first unanswered incoming call. This allows remote activation of the feature by a subscriber or attendant since all that is required to activate this feature is a first unanswered incoming call to the called station. Thereafter, all subsequent incoming calls are routed to the prescribed covering station or facility until such time as the feature is deactivated.

Automatic call coverage for unattended PBX stations

A security system arrangement utilizing a standard PBX for monitoring a plurality of concurrently administrable guard tours. A control processor of the PBX administers the security monitoring processing operation. This processing operation monitors the activities of tour guards as the guards progress through one or more tours. In particular, a programmable memory defines a plurality of tours. Each tour comprises a finite list of sequentially defined checkpoints where each checkpoint is a designated conventional station set of the PBX. A security controller activates the security system by 'dialing' the appropriate feature code at a central control facility, such as an attendant console. The security controller than selects one or more the available tours by 'dialing' a tour code. Following the selection and activation of a tour, a tour guard 'dials' a check-in code at each checkpoint and progresses sequentially through the checkpoints contained in the list comprising the selected tour or tours. The tour guard has an allotted amount of time in which to reach each of the designated checkponts included in the tour sequence. The tour is successfully concluded when the tour guard sequentialy checks-in within the allotted time at each of the designated checkpoints included in a tour. However, if the proper check-in sequence is not followed or if the allotted time period elapses before the tour guard reaches the next checkpoint in the sequence, an alarm is generated to indicate that the tour sequence is disrupted.

PBX security system for monitoring security guard tours

Method and apparatus for providing a timed sequence of different recorded announcements to an incoming caller to hold the caller's attention in a telephone system when no operator is available to answer the incoming call. During intervals in the timed sequence when no announcement is connected to the incoming caller, music is transmitted. When an operator becomes available to answer the call, the incoming caller is disconnected from the recorded announcement or music, whichever is applicable, and connected to the idle operator.

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Boulder, CO, United States of America

Vincent D Vanacore