IL101596A

IL101596A - Devices and method for toll free telephone services

Info

Publication number: IL101596A
Application number: IL10159692A
Authority: IL
Original assignee: Labaton Isaac J
Priority date: 1992-04-15
Filing date: 1992-04-15
Publication date: 1995-05-26
Also published as: WO1993021720A1; IL101596A0

Description

DEVICES AND METHOD FOR TOLL FREE TELEPHONE SERVICES ISAAC LABATON AND METHOD FOR TOLL FREE TELEPHONE SERVICES BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention pertains to devices and a method for telecommunications and more to devices and a method to enable access to certain telephone lines for estr Telephone services and specially Toll Free or Green Lines serv ces can v to customers and peo in gener started offering very attractive services Toll Free ser es by wh h the a on the custome on through t an example the co I tal cable presently providing a Free service from Israel to named by which dialing a Free in customer to an operatCJ While this kind of expensive Free services are convenient customers due to the easy access when trav including from Pay they constitute a serious financial risk for the provider of the serv finan ial risk i inherent to the that the party accept in advance the charge for any in the case such represent misuse or are with the intention to make to the pro der of there are many examples of services which are being d i on Yet or Green Lines constitute a growing segment of the business The public in some of the most advanced has become used to the standards represented by such As Toll Free service becomes world accepted as a method of or the financial liability implied in the provision of such way to access whose cost is charged to the provider of the service as a is also becoming As a typical when a company decides to provide to its customers a Toll Free telephone number Green both characterized as 800 number in the or in company exposing itself to a financial risk implied in a potential misuse of the Toll Free service at its There is not an easy way to stop the mentioned misuse of Collect besides discontinuing the and that is the reason that many companies refrain themselves from offering such kind of service to their The problem referred become accentuated when the Toll Free or Green Lines service includes an international call which as mentioned should be afforded by the provider of the service and if massively can represent a financial damage to the provider of the This unsolved problem is one of the main reasons why the Toll Free 800 numbers in use in the United States is restricted for access to parties calling from the The present invention discloses a method and devices to solve the problems existent in the nowadays Toll Free or Green Lines As very sophisti ated services are being unfold and provided all over the world throuqh Toll Free or Green Lines telephone by telephone carriers 1 T t th need identif cation of the person accessing to the service has become evident Ap ation 100238 filed at the Israel Office on December 4th and assigned to the assignee of the present there is disclosed a powerful device and method for identi ication of the person which accessed to a pa r The losures of 100238 are hereby incorporated by As an of the problems addressed on this invention lets take the case of a bank account assume that the has access to information on his account by calling to a Toll Free service provided by the Technically this can be accessed also if the owner of the account is from another the risk implied in the misuse of the and the uncertainty of the proper identification of the owner refrain some banks from permitting clients to operate their accounts through telephone calls and also have access to the Toll Free service from outside the In certain cases the permission to operate is granted only after the risk associated with a lack of proper identification is accepted by the owner of the account through a special signed declaration in favor of the also in such the Toll Free telephone usually is not accessible from places out of the or the The Bank will probably not accept a situation were it will be charged for international calls initiated by persons that are not identifiable before the call is and the so called Green Lines or Toll Free services fall in this Now the devices and method of this invention will the access to the service only to an authorized group of bank and the bank will know immediately who is In otter there will be no further risk on the side of the As another illustration of this lets take the case of companies like Cezar from the CIL provides to its customers telecommunication services which can be accessed from several like United using a Toll Free or Green Lines is exposing itself to a financial risk implied in the potential abuse and misuse of such Green accepting to be charged for any international call from England to In the risk implied in the by mistake or of the Toll Free or Green Lines telephone services together with the lack of proper and easy identif cation of the person which intends to access to the said service represent a limit for the community of service providers which prevent them from offering to their clients certain very convenient services which otherwise ca y OBJECTS AND OF THE INVENT ION an of this to provid two complementary devices and a method for restricting the access to a specific Free or Green Lines telephone service or lines to a selected of It is another object of this invention to provide devices and a method for identifying the person which succeeds in accessing to a specific Toll Free or Green Lines service is still another object of this invention to provide devices and a method for accessing to a specific Toll Free or Green Lines telephone service in which the said device is activated by keyincj in a secret code in such a way that only person in knowledge of such secret code can make use of the device of this in accordance with one embodiment of the invention two electronic devices are One is a sophisticated telephone lines bridge and switch board the following the Central which is in service The second device the following the Personal is also an electronic device which is able to generate DTMF dialing tones in similar way as the commercially available Tone This Personal Device is provided to the customer by the provider of said The Personal has embedded into its electronic a set of several Toll Free telephone numbers as well as a Mathematical Function whose variable is the time and date the the Function of When the holder of the say the wishes to access the particular he keys in a Then the device will select one out of the said set of Toll Free numbers and will dial The selection of that particular number out of the will be made according with a criteria governed by the said Function the Central Device which is connected between the main switch board and the CO Green Lines coming from the Public Telephone and Telegraph company in the the will activate just one of the Toll Free lines of the said set of Toll Free and this line will be from time to according to the same criteria mentioned that the criteria governed by the said According to the method and the devices of this invention this Central Device will keep all the lines but one disconnected in s h a way f directl the Personal to one specific Toll Free number of the said there is a sm probability of being Also if somebody will record the dialing tones produced by the Personal Devi try to use the e of tones to have to the servi the t will eed e to th t the valid changing wi h he ng to another embod this the Personal will identify itself trough a special oc to the immediately after the communication is This identification can be a to the s set u the Application 100238 mentioned Detailed Description Turning now to description the it should be kept in mind that the particular details of the embodiment choose to exemplify the method and devices of this are given as a way of example and for purpose of Thus it should appreciated that no attempt has been made to describe the electronic design in any more detail than is necessary for the fundamental understanding of the assume that a given corporation The is interested in providing a particular service The through Toll Free or Green Lines Also lets assume that the access to the said Service should be restricted to a specific entities In order to exempl if let assume that the Company leases from the local PTT company a set of Toll Free telephone the Set of According to the method and devices of this two different and complementary electronic devices are One of the said devices the Central is an electronic switching board that should be placed adjacent the main telephone switching board but more interfacing between the incoming Toll Free lines and main switching According to the method of this invention this Central Device will keep all the Set of Numbers c ed with the exception of of The Active Now the Active Line will be selected by the Central Device out of the said Set of according to a criteria governed by a mathematical function whose variable is the time and date The Fun Now the validity of this selection will last for a short and variable period of time the subsequent l will be a new s ion of a number of the said Set of and so again and the of w governed by the by ther to the second dev of his the Devi o an devi e to some t to a commercial Tone t i a device able to generate dialing tones according to international telecommunication This device its all said Set of as well as the said Additionally it has say four digit number the Personal as as a communication According to the method of this the said Company will provide the said Personal Device to each one of the said Now when the holder of the Personal desires to access the said he keys in his Personal into the Personal The Personal triggered by the recognition of the Personal will one number out of the Set of according to the same criteria used by the Central that is the criteria governed by the s As a result the generates the dialing tones of the said Active and therefore a connection can be with the Central through any telephone working with the based Tone According to one embodiment of this once the commu ication is both devices Personal and will proceed according to a previously agreed telecommunications protocol the which results in the identification per the Central Device of the particular Personal Device which is Immediately after the is completed the call goes through and reaches s main switching the method of this invention provides a wa for corporations or banks to offer Toll Free or Green Lines telephone services to a selected group of i Additionally the method permits the of the Personal Device which had access to the Although the present invention has been described with reference to specific presently preferred it is not limited to the specific embodiments That it should be clear that various modi ications and substitutions can be made to the devices and method of this invention without departing from the true spirit and scope of the and the appended claims are intended to cover all such insufficientOCRQuality

Claims

CL IMS

1. A method for providing Toll Free or Green Lines telephone services in which a set of several Toll Free telephone lines is devoted to the service, and, out of such set of telephone numbers , a sub-set composed by one of such numbers or more is bridged or connected to the network of telephone lines at each particular time and date, being the rest of numbers of the set disconnected at such time, and by which the elements of the sub-set of connected numbers are being exchanged, from time to time , with the elements of the set which do not belong to this sub-set of numbers, in a manner such that the numbers which are connected to the network are changing with the time and date, and by which the selection of the numbers which will be connected at a particular time and date will be made according with a criteria based on the computed value of a mathematical function which has the time and date as variabl e .

2. A method in accordance with claim 1 by which the period of time by which the elements of the sub-set of connected numbers remain in such sub-set is also determined according with a criteria governed by a mathematical function of the time and date.

3. A method in accordance with claim 1 and 2 by w ich, for each particular Toll Free or Green Lines service to be rendered to a specific group of persons or entities a different and original mathematical function of the time and date will be chosen.

4.- A method in accordance to claims 1 to 3 by which the access to the use of the mathematical function of the time and date will be extended by the provider of the service only to the members of the specific group of persons or entities to whom the Toll Free or Green Lines service will be rendered. I

5.- A method in accordance to claims 1 to 4 by which, to each member of the group to whom the service will be rendered, a secret code will be furnished, in such a manner that only the person in knowledge of such secret code will that only the person in knowledge of such secret code will be able to activate the electronic device which selects the Toll Free number which is connected to the network at the time of activation of the device.

6. - An electronic device consisting basically of a DMFT dialer, a clock, a microprocessor, an EPRGM, a key-board and batteries, able to generate dialing tones according to International Telecommunication Standards, in whose electronic circuitry it is embedded a mathematical function of the time and date, a set of Toll Free telephone numbers, and a personal code, which is working according to the method specified in claims 1 to 5, that is , after the personal code is entered, the device computes the value of the mathematical function at the time and date proportionated by the clock, and select one out of set of telephone numbers embedded in the EPROM , according to this value, and then the dialer generates the corresponding dialing tones associated to the number selected.

7. - An electronic device able to bridge telephone lines , working according to the method of claim 1 to 5, which disconnects all of the incoming lines physically connected to the device, with the exception of a sub-set of one or more lines, and which is able to exchange, from time to time, the lines belonging to the sub-set of connected lines with the disconnected lines in such a way that the connected lines are changing with time, and, by which the selection of the line or lines which are connected at a particular time is made by computing the value of a mathematical function of the time and date, and using this value, according to a pre-established criteria, to select the line or lines which should be connected at such time.

8. - A method in accordance with claim 1 but for regular telephone services and not necessarily Toll Free or Green Lines.

9. - A method in accordance with claim 2 but for regular telephone services and not necessarily Toll Free or Green Lines .

10. - A method in accordance with claim 3 but for regular telephone services and not necessarily Toll Free or Green Lines.

11. - A method in accordance with claim 4 but for regular telephone services and not necessarily Toll Free or Green Lines .

12. - A method in accordance with claim 5 but for regular telephone services and not necessarily Toll Free or Green Lines. 11.- A device in accordance with claim 6 but for regular telephone services and not necessarily Toll Free or Green Lines.