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.

Date of Patent:
Sep. 01, 2015

Filed:

Jan. 06, 2014
Applicant:

International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);

Inventors:

Kulvir S. Bhogal, Pflugerville, TX (US);

Gregory J. Boss, Saginaw, MI (US);

Rick A. Hamilton, II, Charlottesville, VA (US);

Brian M. O'Connell, Research Triangle Park, NC (US);

Alexandre Polozoff, Bloomington, IL (US);

Attorneys:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H04M 3/42 (2006.01); H04M 15/00 (2006.01); H04M 11/00 (2006.01); H04W 4/00 (2009.01); H04W 40/00 (2009.01); G01R 31/08 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
H04M 15/805 (2013.01); H04M 15/8044 (2013.01); H04M 2215/42 (2013.01);
Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide optimization of telephone services through telephone calling plan/card analysis. The least expensive rate is found for telephone calls at any given time and/or date, either through static pre-entry of data, or through dynamic querying of rates via a web-based look-up table, and places calls according to an optimized calling plan. Specifically, in a typical embodiment, an outgoing/target telephone number for an intended telephone call is captured, and a corresponding destination geographic region is identified. Based on the geographic region, a calling plan resulting in a lowest price for the telephone call is identified. This is typically accomplished by consulting at least one table (e.g., call information table) that associates (among other things) calling plans and/or calling cards with geographic regions. Once a calling plan and/or calling card is identified/selected, a corresponding set of dialing instructions will be obtained from the table and used to make/place the telephone call.


Find Patent Forward Citations

Loading…