System for accumulating data over nondedicated telephone lines

Abstract

A telephone data accumulator system for accumulating data at a central station through connection of the central station to a remote subscriber's station, including a data accumulator, by way of nondedicated telephone lines. The remote terminal is selectively conditioned to generate dialing signals and to thereby provide selective connection of the accumulator to the telephone lines from the remote subscriber station. A preconditioning circuit such as timing means or a broadcast signal decoder at the subscriber's station conditions the remote terminal and provides a short time window during a time of the day when the telephone there is not likely to be used for normal telephone calls, and the call is made to the central station during the time window to cause connection of the data accumulator to the telephone lines. The data in the data accumulator is thereafter transferred from the remote station to the central station over the telephone lines.