Telecommunication system using message presentation during a ringing signal period

Abstract

Marketing of goods and services on telephone lines and during a period from the commencement of a telephone call to the receipt and acceptance of that call (quiescent period) when the recipient of the call actuates his or her telephone. This quiescent period of time, during which a ringing signal is normally generated, is used for presentation of advertising or promotional messages, primarily to a caller, although it can be delivered to the recipient of the call, or both. In addition, the system provides for the use of messages during the normal ringing cycle time to effectively replace the ringing signal. The particular advertising or promotional message can be selected for a certain area, such as an area covered by a telephone switchboard or a certain party or characteristics of that party. In this way each individual telephone switchboard is capable of presenting a message different from the next telephone switchboard.

Description

RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application is based on subject matter presented in and claims priority from a provisional patent application Ser. No. 60 / 283,796, filed Apr. 12, 2001, for a Telecommunications System. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Field of the Invention [0003] This invention relates in general to certain new and useful improvements in telecommunication systems, and more particularly to telecommunication systems which rely upon use of promotional or advertising message presentation or other message presentation during a normal ringing cycle. [0004] 2. Brief Description of Related Art [0005] In most telephone systems throughout the world, initiation of a telephone call is achieved by a caller generating a dial tone at his or telephone and that dial tone or voltage is then used and / or received by a telephone switching station, which selects the telephone corresponding to a dialed or inserted telephone number. Thus, if a caller dials the telephone number 12345, t...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

Enables organizations to promote their services during otherwise wasted time, reducing communication costs and providing targeted advertising, while allowing customers to obtain product information, with the potential for discounts or credits for listening to messages, thus enhancing customer engagement and revenue generation.

Problems solved by technology

There is, by telephone design, a delay which arises between the completion of a dialing process and the initiation of a first ring of a ringing sequence.

Although that time period may be short, perhaps no more than four to six seconds, depending upon the particular telephone system, that time is merely a wasted time period in which the caller must await an initiation of a ringing signal.

However, most callers immediately become accustomed to the fact that there is a time delay, and hence this time delay is expected with little or no consideration being given to that delay.

The Sleevi patent, however, is specifically limited to a land based or so-called hard-wired network and does not include more modern forms of telecommunication which have become available since the time of the Sleevi patent.

Moreover, Sleevi did not envision the selective selec-1Xtion of messages depending upon a particular caller and which selected message was designed to conform to or meet the purchasing information or other criteria of a particular customer.

Thus, Sleevi was deficient in this regard, as well as in other areas.

Although Streitzel does provide for advertising and promotional messages used in a cellular communication, it does so with several limitations not necessarily overcome by the Sleevi patent.

However, that message is generated with the use of a time delay before the actual ringing signal is initiated.

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