The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 13, 2001
Filed:
Jul. 13, 1999
Myron C. Butler, Edmond, OK (US);
Carl P. Bright, Harrah, OK (US);
Lawrence O. Hilligoss, Ashland, OR (US);
Communications Manufacturing Company, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Abstract
A telephone technician's remote assist apparatus connects into a telephone line to be tested by the technician from a remote location. Control signals are sent from the remote location to the remote assist apparatus over the same pair of wires of the telephone line under test. A particular control signal encoding includes two consecutive leading star (**) dual-tone multi-frequency tones. The remote assist apparatus opens the telephone line in response to at least one control signal, and the apparatus preferably automatically restores the line after a predetermined time so that the subscriber is not left disconnected. The particular control signal encoding and the automatic restoring features can be implemented without using the same pair of wires under test. Thus a method for use in testing a telephone line can include controlling by using the same pair of wires under test, but a method can also include using the particular type of encoded control signal and/or the automatic restoring features without using the same pair of wires under test.