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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to telecommunications systems and
particularly to "800" telecommunications networks.
In any business, providing information to a customer is often critical in
order to allow the customer to make an informed decision about buying a
product or service from the business. In providing such information to the
customer, the business is typically concerned about any costs the customer
must bear in order to obtain the information and the type of information
provided to the customer. In particular, a business which relies on a
telephone call for contact with the customer is concerned about the cost
of the telephone call to the customer and the type of information conveyed
through the telephone call.
Since a customer who has to pay for a telephone call to a business in order
to inquire, i.e., receive information, about a product or service may be
less inclined to make the telephone call to the business, two alternative
methods currently exist to eliminate this cost. A business may use an
outward bound telecommunications service (e.g., the AT&T MEGACOM.RTM.
service), i.e., where the business is the calling party thereby
eliminating the cost of the telephone call to the customer, the called
party. However, since the telephone call is initiated by the business, the
business typically calls customers which may not be interested in the
products or services of the business. As a result, some percentage of the
telephone calls to customers are actually wasted. An alternative to an
outward bound telecommunications service is an "800" telecommunications
service, i.e., one which allows a customer to be the calling party, at no
cost to the customer. An "800" telecommunications service is provided to a
subscribing business by a telecommunications network. As a result,
interested customers are provided with an incentive to call a business in
order to inquire, i.e., get information, about the products and services
of the business.
Once a telephone call is established between the calling party and the
called party, by an outward bound or an "800" service (thereby eliminating
the cost to the customer in obtaining the information), the business is
concerned about the type of information that is conveyed through the
telephone call. In current outward bound or "800" services, the business
typically provides another person, i.e., a representative of the business
to provide verbal, or audio, information to the customer in order to
assist the customer in making a buying decision.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
I have come to realize that the prior art arrangement of providing
information to a customer in order to make a buying decision is
disadvantageous since in either an outward bound service or an "800"
service, product or service information is exchanged between a customer
and a business only over a voice channel, i.e., an audio path. As a
result, the customer is provided with verbal descriptions of services or
products from a representative of the business in order to make a buying
decision. In some situations however, a picture of the product or sales
brochure can make the difference in the decision-making process.
Therefore, in accordance with the invention, a second communications path
is automatically provided between the calling party and the called party
on which visual, or image, information about a product or service is
exchanged between the calling party and the called party.
In a preferred embodiment, the AT&T MEGACOM 800 (M800) service is enhanced
to provide a mechanism to exchange visual or image information, via ISDN
facilities, simultaneously with the exchange of audio information by the
M800 service. Specifically, a business subscribes to the M800
telecommunications service which allows a customer to call the business,
at no-charge, to inquire about a product or service. The M800
telecommunications service is provided to the business through a Primary
Rate Interface (PRI) Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN)
telecommunications facility. In addition, the customer is provided access
to the M800 telecommunications service through a Basic Rate Interface
(BRI) Integrated Service Digital Network (ISDN) facility. In order to
inquire about product or service information the customer dials the "800"
number, associated with the business, using a BRI ISDN terminal. While the
customer is making the inquiry a second communications path is
automatically established between the customer and the business to convey
visual, or image, information pictorially describing the product or
services of the business.
In accordance with a feature of the invention, the second path is
automatically established by the called party, e.g., when the business
desires to provide the customer with additional information such as by
providing access to an image data base of products.
In accordance with another feature of the invention, the second path is
automatically established by the calling party, e.g., during the
customer's call in order to gain access to an image data base of products
for additional information.
In establishing the second communications path to the business, the
telephone call is either an "800" call or a "plain old telephone service"
(POTS) call. However, a potential inconvenience can arise to the business
in that two separate billing-records (one for each of the communications
paths) may be generated for the one transaction. For example, in the case
of a POTS call, the calling party may negotiate with the called party for
reverse billing in which case the called party would inform the network of
its acceptance of the billing charges. Therefore, in accordance with
another feature of the invention, the billing-records of the two separate
telephone calls are correlated so as to provide one combined
billing-record for the transaction to the business.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
In the drawing,
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an illustrative communications system
embodying the principles of the invention;
FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of a first illustrative method used in the
communications system of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a block diagram of illustrative premise switching equipment 305
used in the communications system of FIG. 1;
FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of a second illustrative method used in the
communications system of FIG. 1; and
FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of an illustrative billing method used with the
method of FIG. 2 in the communications system of FIG. 1.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
As noted earlier, a business is typically concerned about providing enough
information to a customer to enable the customer to make an informed
decision about buying a product or service from the business. In providing
such information to the customer, the business is typically concerned
about any costs the customer must bear in order to obtain the information
and the type of information provided to the customer. In particular, a
business which relies on a telephone call for contact with the customer is
concerned about the cost of the telephone call to the customer and the
type of information conveyed through the telephone call.
Although both an outward bound telecommunications service and an "800"
telecommunications service each address, in their own way, the cost of the
telephone call to the customer, both the outward bound service and "800"
service only provide a single voice path, i.e., an audio connection,
between the calling party and the called party. As a result, the customer,
although obtaining free information, has limited access to information,
i.e., receives only verbal descriptions of products or services from a
representive of the business in order to make a buying decision. In some
situations however, a picture of the product or sales brochure can make
the difference in the decision-making process. Therefore, in accordance
with the invention, a second communications path is automatically provided
between the calling party and the called party on which visual, or image
information about a product or service is exchanged between the calling
party and the called party.
A representative communications system, embodying the principles of the
invention, is shown in FIG. 1. It is assumed, for illustrative purposes
only, that business 300 subscribes to an "800" telecommunications service
such as the MEGACOM 800 (M800) service from AT&T. The M800 service is
provided by switching network 200 and allows a customer at customer
terminal 110 to dial business 300, at no charge (toll-free), to place an
order, or even request a service, from the convenience of his or her
residence or office. The communications system of FIG. 1 is comprised of
well-known technologies, and references to relevant illustrative technical
material are included hereinbelow. In addition, it is assumed the
nomenclature of a "telephone call" is understood to represent any of the
well-known methods, processes and technologies used in telecommunications
for supporting a voice, or data, communication between a starting
point--the calling party--and a destination point--the called party.
Customer terminal 110 represents one of a plurality of customers. Customer
terminal 110 is comprised of voice terminal 120 and data terminal 130.
Voice terminal 120 allows a customer to send and receive audio
information, and data terminal 130 allows a customer to send and/or
receive data, e.g., pictorial data sent as image information (e.g., still
pictures as well as video). For the purposes of this example, terminal 110
is, as is known in the art, an Integrated Voice/Data Terminal (IVDT),
i.e., voice terminal 120 and data terminal 130 are physically integrated
together in customer terminal 110. Customer terminal 110 is connected to
local exchange carrier (LEC) 100, of telecommunications network 500, via
"Basic Rate Interface" (BRI) Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN)
facility 11. LEC 100 is representative of one of a plurality of local
exchange carriers that are served by switching network 200 and is
typically comprised of stored-program-control switching system technology.
Stored-program-control switching technology is generally described in The
Bell System Technical Journal, Vol. 56, No. 2, February, 1977, and Vol.
64, No. 6, Part 2, July-August, 1987. LEC 100 is connected through path 12
to switching network 200. Path 12 is representative of well-known network
access facilities, such as trunks and other stored-program-control
switches through which a telephone call is routed to switching network
200. Switching network 200 is illustratively comprised of a plurality of
stored-program-control switching systems, herein represented by 4 ESS.TM.
digital switches 210 and 220 available from AT&T. The 4 ESS digital switch
is described in detail in The Bell System Technical Journal, Vol. 56, No.
7, September, 1977, and Vol. 60, No. 6, Part 2, July-August, 1981. For the
purposes of this example, 4 ESS switching systems 210 and 220 are
representative of the originating and terminating points, respectively, of
switching network 200. (Examples of network architecture can be found in
the AT& T Technical Journal, Vol. 66, Iss. 3, May-June, 1987.) An
illustrative telephone call will enter switching network 200 through
switch 210, the originating point of the telephone call in switching
network 200. Switch 210 will access network routing data base 250 in a
well-known way for routing information in order to route the telephone
call to terminating switch 220 through path 13. Path 13 may include other
network stored-program-control switches and represents typical network
interconnecting trunk facilities through which an illustrative telephone
call may be routed. Switching network 200 serves a plurality of businesses
such as business 300. Business 300 is connected to 4 ESS switch 220 over
trunk facility 14, illustratively a "Primary Rate Interface" (PRI)
Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) facility. ISDN technology is
described in the AT&T Technical Journal, Vol. 66, Iss. 3, May-June, 1987,
and, Vol. 65, Iss. 1, January-February, 1986. ISDN trunk facility 14
terminates in premise telephone system 320. Premise telephone system 320
is illustratively comprised of premise switching equipment (PSE) 305,
herein represented as an AT&T System 85 digital PBX--which supports a
plurality of user terminals herein represented by ISDN terminal 310--and
product data base 315.
In order to provide the ability to route an illustrative telephone call
from customer terminal 110 to business 300, telecommunications network 500
of FIG. 1 also includes well-known Common Channel Signaling (CCS) network
260 for transferring control information such as billing, routing, and
supervisory information messages between the representative
stored-program-control switching systems shown in FIG. 1. A typical CCS
network is described in The Bell System Technical Journal, Vol. 57, No. 2,
February, 1978, and Vol. 61, No. 7, September, 1982, and in the AT&T
Technical Journal, Vol. 66, Iss. 3, May-June 1987, and, Vol. 65, Iss. 1,
January-February, 1986. For the purposes of this example, it is assumed
that CCS network 260 conforms to the standards for Signalling System
number 7 (SS7) as described in American National Standards Institute
(ANSI) T1.114 through T1.115. In addition, it is assumed that all ISDN
equipment utilizes the well-known ISDN Q.931 protocol, and supports ISDN
applications as defined in AT&T Networks ISDN Primary Rate Interface
Specification, Technical Reference 41449, April 1989, and AT&T Networks
ISDN Primary Rate Interface and Special Applications Specification,
Technical Reference 41459, April 1989. Finally, it is assumed that the
switching system, and interconnecting trunk facilities, can supply the
well-known Automatic Number Identification (ANI) of the calling party in
order to establish the location of the calling party in telecommunications
network 500, i.e., the calling party's network address. A telephone
signaling protocol for supplying ANI from a LEC to a network switching
system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,555,594, issued Nov. 26, 1985, to
Friedes et al.
Trunk facility 14 represents the number of PRI ISDN trunks subscribed to by
business 300. As is known in the art, each PRI ISDN trunk consists of 23
lines, or "B-channels", that are available to business 300 for use in
sending and receiving information. In addition, each trunk also consists
of a "D-channel" which is used for sending signalling and control data in
order to manage the information carried by each of the respective 23
B-channels. Trunk facility 11 represents a BRI ISDN trunk, which is
comprised of 2 B-channels and a D-channel, subscribed to by the customer.
As is well-known in the art, a customer at customer terminal 110 can
originate a typical "800" telephone call by dialing a predetermined "800"
number which corresponds to business 300. The telephone call is then
routed through telecommunications network 500 to 4 ESS 220. 4 ESS 220
routes the telephone call to PSE 305, of business 300, on one of the
available B-channels of ISDN facility 14. Business 300 completes the call
from customer terminal 110 when a representative of business 300 answers
the incoming telephone call at ISDN terminal 310 and initiates a voice
conversation with the customer. Thus, a communications path through
telecommunications network 500 is established between the customer--the
calling party--and the business--the called party. In order to facilitate
understanding of the inventive concept, reference can also be made to FIG.
2 which represents a first illustrative method used herein.
Upon receiving the customer telephone call on one of the B-channels of
trunk facility 14, PSE 305 also receives the customer's network address,
or telephone number, i.e., ANI, from 4 ESS 220 on the D-channel of trunk
facility 14 (block 321). (It is assumed herein that the respective control
information on the D-channel associated with the one B-channel is also a
part of the communications path established between the calling party and
the called party.) At this point, as in the prior art, a single
communications path is established between customer terminal 110 and
business 300. However, this single communications path only allows
business 300 to provide verbal, or audio, information to the customer.
Therefore, in accordance with the invention, PSE 305 sends a D-channel,
Q.931, call SETUP message, containing the customer's ANI, to
telecommunications network 500 to request a second communications path be
provided to the customer on another B-channel (block 322). This second
communications path is used to provide visual, or image, information to
the customer to enhance the verbal information provided by business 300
and thereby increase the opportunities for completing a sale to the
customer.
The D-channel, Q.931, call SETUP message, from PSE 305, is received by
telecommunications network 500 which then checks if another B-channel is
available to the customer on trunk facility 11 (block 501).
If another B-channel is not available on trunk facility 11, a D-channel,
Q.931, SETUP ACKnowledge message indicating a busy condition is sent from
telecommunications network 500 to PSE 305, of business 300 (block 502).
The D-channel, Q.931, SETUP ACKnowledge message, indicating the busy
condition, is received by PSE 305 and the call attempt ends. (block 323).
If another B-channel to customer terminal 110 is available, a D-channel,
Q.931, CALL PROCeeding message is sent from telecommunications network 500
to PSE 305, of business 300 (block 503). The D-channel, Q.931, CALL
PROCeeding message, from telecommunications network 500, is received by
PSE 305 as acknowledgement that the second communications path is being
provided (block 324).
Telecommunications network 500 then establishes the second communications
path between customer terminal 110 and business 300 (block 504). After the
second communications path is established between business 300 and
customer terminal 110, additional product information can now be provided
to the customer in order to increase the possibility of completing a sale
of a product or service. For example, using well-known techniques, image
information stored in product data base 315 can be transmitted to data
terminal 130. Additionally, using well-known premise switching equipment
features such as bridging, the representative of the business at ISDN
terminal 310 can select from product data base 315 the images to be
transmitted on the second communications path to data terminal 130. Thus,
additional visual, or image, information can be sent to the customer
simultaneously with the verbal information thereby supplementing and
enhancing the verbal information being provided by the representative of
the business.
Before proceeding with a description of a second illustrative method,
attention is directed to FIG. 3 which shows a block diagram of PSE 305
which is illustrative of a stored-program-control switching system in
accordance with the invention. For the purposes of the first method
described hereinabove, PSE 305 is comprised of the following elements:
line interface 351, terminal interface 352, CPU 350, disk storage 353,
memory 354, and paths 31 and 32. (These elements are well-known in the art
and further information can be sought in the references described
hereinabove; e.g., path 31 is further comprised of data and control
connections which are typically used in a stored-program-control switching
system.) Line interface 351 provides the interface between ISDN trunk
facility 14 and path 31. Terminal interface 352 provides the interface
between customer premise equipment, herein represented by ISDN terminal
310 and product data base 315, and path 31. CPU 350 is a microprocessor
based central processing unit, i.e., CPU 350 operates on, or executes,
program data stored in memory 354, via path 32, for controlling the flow
of data and control information between line interface 351 and terminal
interface 352. Additionally, CPU 350 may also have access to disk storage
353 to provide for a larger storage capacity than memory 354. Memory 354
is illustratively comprised of a number of storage locations, of which a
subset is shown in FIG. 3. In each storage location, data representative
of the program, i.e., program data, is stored. (For the purposes of this
example, it is assumed memory 354 is illustratively comprised of random
access memory (RAM) as opposed to read only memory (ROM). Further, the
storage locations shown are only representative, e.g., the storage
location for block 321 may actually be comprised of additional storage
locations which are needed to store a program which is representative of
block 321). In the context of the first illustrative method described
hereinabove, the steps performed by PSE 305 are stored in memory 354,
beginning at location n-1, and operated on, or executed, by CPU 350. For
example, after the first communications path is established between
customer terminal 110 and business 300, CPU 350, of PSE 305, executes a
program comprised of program data representative of block 321 at memory
location n-1. As a result, FIG. 3 shows how the illustrative method of
FIG. 2 can be implemented in a stored-program-control switching system
such as PSE 305.
As an alternative to the first illustrative method, the customer, at
customer terminal 110, can automatically establish the second
communications path while initiating the first communications path to
business 300. A second illustrative method using this approach, in the
system of FIG. 1, is shown in FIG. 4.
Customer terminal 110 sends a D-channel, Q.931, call SETUP message to
telecommunications network 500 requesting both B channels be activated to
business 300 for the "800" telephone call (block 111).
The D-channel, Q.931, call SETUP message from customer terminal 110 is
received by telecommunications network 500 which then checks if both
B-channels are available on trunk facility 14 to business 300 (block 520).
If both B-channels are not available on trunk facility 14, a D-channel,
Q.931, SETUP ACKnowledge message indicating a busy condition is sent from
telecommunications network 500 to customer terminal 110 (block 521). The
D-channel, Q.931, SETUP ACKnowledge message is received by customer
terminal 110 and the call attempt ends (block 112).
If only one of the B-channels to business 300 is available, a D-channel,
Q.931, CALL PROCeeding message, for the one B-channel, is sent from
telecommunications network 500 to customer terminal 110 indicating that
only the voice call is being established to business 300 (block 522). The
D-channel, Q.931, CALL PROCeeding message, from telecommunications network
500, is received by customer terminal 110 as acknowledgement that only the
voice call is being established through telecommunications network 500
(block 113).
If both of the B-channels to business 300 are available, a D-channel,
Q.931, CALL PROCeeding message is sent from telecommunications network 500
to customer terminal 110 (block 523). The D-channel, Q.931, CALL
PROCeeding message, from telecommunications network 500, is received by
customer terminal 110 as acknowledgement that the first and second
communications paths are being established by telecommunications network
500(block 114).
Finally, if either one or both B-channels are available, telecommunications
network 500 then establishes the communications path(s) between customer
terminal 110 and business 300 (block 524).
As shown in both of the illustrative methods described hereinabove
(assuming the availability of two B-channels) two separate communications
paths are established between customer terminal 110 and business 300.
However, in the prior art, business 300 receives a bill, i.e., a list of
individual billing-records for each communications path established with
their customers. In fact, in the first illustrative method described
hereinabove, business 300 receives a bill for the M800 service customer
telephone calls (representative of the costs of the first communications
path) and a separate bill for the "plain old telephone service" (POTS)
(representative of the costs of the second communications path). (In the
first illustrative method, the second communications path is a POTS
telephone call since the second communications path is established by
providing the customer's telephone number, or ANI, to telecommunications
network 500. This is in contrast to the first communications path where
the customer utilized the M800 service by dialing an "800" number.)
However, business 300 may desire to collect billing-information for the
single customer transaction which was comprised of the two communications
paths, i.e., receive a combination of the previously separate
billing-records for each communications path in order to better track
expenses. Therefore, in accordance with another feature of the invention,
it is possible to correlate these billing records by using data base
techniques as known in the prior art so as to provide business 300 with a
single transaction billing-record combining the billing-records of the
individual communications paths. In FIG. 1, billing-records data base 270
is representative of any number of well-known techniques for recording and
providing billing information in a telecommunications network. (For
example, billing-records data base 270 can be comprised of a plurality of
smaller data-bases and a central computer facility, each one of the data
bases being connected to one of the 4 ESS switches in switching network
200 and the central computer facility.) FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of an
illustrative billing method for correlating or synchronizing the
billing-record information provided to business 300. It is assumed that
the first illustrative method is used in establishing the second
communications path, i.e., on receipt of the "800" telephone call from the
customer, business 300 automatically requests the second communications
path be established to the customer using the customer's ANI (i.e.,
business 300 places a POTS telephone call to customer terminal 110).
When the transaction between the customer and the business is concluded,
e.g., the customer hangs up thereby signalling an end to the transaction,
telecommunications network 500 will terminate both communications paths.
Upon terminating the first communications path, i.e., the "800" telephone
call, 4 ESS 210 sends the "800" billing-record information to
billing-records data base 270 (block 211) which is then received and
recorded by billing-records data base 270 (block 271). Upon terminating
the second communications path, i.e., the POTS telephone call, 4 ESS 220
sends the POTS billing-record information to billing-records data base 270
(block 221) which is then received and recorded by billing-records data
base 270 (block 272). When billing-records data base 270 has both
billing-records for each of the communications paths, billing-records data
base 270 correlates the billing-record information, using well-known data
base techniques, to provide a combined billing-record for the single
transaction between the customer and the business (block 273).
The foregoing merely illustrates the principles of the invention. For
instance, the customer or the business can also automatically establish
the second communications path later in the conversation. Also, other
information besides ANI can be used to identify the customer and the
business. In addition, the business and the customer can use any mix of
BRI and PRI facilities (e.g., both the business and the customer can
subscribe to BRI facilities). In fact, the communications paths do not
have to be ISDN and the terminals do not have to be ISDN compatible
equipment, e.g., a customer using a "tip-ring" voice line can establish a
first communications path to a business which subscribes to ISDN
facilities, and the business can automatically establish a second
communications path via a cable TV connection to the customer's TV set.
Finally, the telecommunications network configuration used herein is
merely representative, i.e., other network and configuration architectures
can be used; for example, as mentioned hereinabove, a cable TV network can
be included within the telecommunications network to provide the second
communications path. As a result, it should be realized that the invention
is not limited to this particular embodiment and that additional
embodiments, modifications and applications which will become obvious to
those skilled in the art are included in the spirit and scope of the
invention.
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