CA1286759C - Telephone toll service with advertising - Google Patents
Telephone toll service with advertisingInfo
- Publication number
- CA1286759C CA1286759C CA000566904A CA566904A CA1286759C CA 1286759 C CA1286759 C CA 1286759C CA 000566904 A CA000566904 A CA 000566904A CA 566904 A CA566904 A CA 566904A CA 1286759 C CA1286759 C CA 1286759C
- Authority
- CA
- Canada
- Prior art keywords
- telephone
- service
- toll
- advertising
- type
- Prior art date
- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
- Expired - Fee Related
Links
- 230000002452 interceptive effect Effects 0.000 claims description 3
- 238000000034 method Methods 0.000 abstract description 3
- 230000011664 signaling Effects 0.000 abstract description 3
- 230000000007 visual effect Effects 0.000 abstract description 3
- 230000003247 decreasing effect Effects 0.000 description 2
- 238000010586 diagram Methods 0.000 description 2
- 241001163743 Perlodes Species 0.000 description 1
- 230000003213 activating effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 230000003466 anti-cipated effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 230000000903 blocking effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 230000003111 delayed effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 238000012986 modification Methods 0.000 description 1
- 230000004048 modification Effects 0.000 description 1
- 230000000737 periodic effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 230000004044 response Effects 0.000 description 1
- 238000012216 screening Methods 0.000 description 1
- 238000012163 sequencing technique Methods 0.000 description 1
- 230000035899 viability Effects 0.000 description 1
Classifications
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M15/00—Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
- H04M15/80—Rating or billing plans; Tariff determination aspects
- H04M15/8083—Rating or billing plans; Tariff determination aspects involving reduced rates or discounts, e.g. time-of-day reductions or volume discounts
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M3/00—Automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
- H04M3/42—Systems providing special services or facilities to subscribers
- H04M3/487—Arrangements for providing information services, e.g. recorded voice services or time announcements
- H04M3/4872—Non-interactive information services
- H04M3/4878—Advertisement messages
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M3/00—Automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
- H04M3/42—Systems providing special services or facilities to subscribers
- H04M3/487—Arrangements for providing information services, e.g. recorded voice services or time announcements
- H04M3/493—Interactive information services, e.g. directory enquiries ; Arrangements therefor, e.g. interactive voice response [IVR] systems or voice portals
- H04M3/4931—Directory assistance systems
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04Q—SELECTING
- H04Q3/00—Selecting arrangements
- H04Q3/0016—Arrangements providing connection between exchanges
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M2203/00—Aspects of automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
- H04M2203/20—Aspects of automatic or semi-automatic exchanges related to features of supplementary services
- H04M2203/2083—Confirmation by serviced party
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M2215/00—Metering arrangements; Time controlling arrangements; Time indicating arrangements
- H04M2215/01—Details of billing arrangements
- H04M2215/0184—Details of billing arrangements involving reduced rates or discounts, e.g. time-of-day reductions, volume discounts, cell discounts, group billing, frequent calling destination(s) or user history list
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M2215/00—Metering arrangements; Time controlling arrangements; Time indicating arrangements
- H04M2215/01—Details of billing arrangements
- H04M2215/0192—Sponsored, subsidised calls via advertising, e.g. calling cards with ads or connecting to special ads, free calling time by purchasing goods
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M3/00—Automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
- H04M3/42—Systems providing special services or facilities to subscribers
- H04M3/42025—Calling or Called party identification service
- H04M3/42034—Calling party identification service
- H04M3/42059—Making use of the calling party identifier
- H04M3/42068—Making use of the calling party identifier where the identifier is used to access a profile
Landscapes
- Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
- Signal Processing (AREA)
- Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
- Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
- Marketing (AREA)
- Meter Arrangements (AREA)
- Telephonic Communication Services (AREA)
Abstract
Abstract There is disclosed a system for providing an economical telephone toll service in which a telephone subscriber selects the economical service by, for example, sending an appropriate signal, and then dials his directory assistance call or other telephone toll call. After the caller's options are determined and typically before signaling for the call is commenced, a recorded-announcement of an aural or visual nature is connected to the subscriber's line, the announcement consisting of at least one advertisement. The advertisements are selected from a databank according to some predetermined technique of selection, which may include any number of factors or features to make the service attractive to subscribers and of a nature to make the service also sufficiently rewarding to advertisers. After theinitial delay, usually after the advertising announcement is completed, the toll call and/or directory assistance call is processed as usual but at a reduced rate of charge or with automatic credit being given to the customer's account.
Description
7S1~3 TELEPHONE TOLL SERVICE~ Wll~ ADVERTISING
Technical Field . .
This invention relates to systems for providing telephone toll services such as, but not limited to, di~ectory assistance or long-distance calling.
S Problem -Since directory assis~ance charges were first instituted by telephone operating companies, some telephone customers have thought such charges to be excessive. Many of these same people also feel that charges for long-distance calling, although they have decreased at a surprising rate, are still too high.
lû In an era of decreasing regulation and increasing competitiYeness oftelephone service, telephone operating companies, both long-distance companies and local exchange companies, can ill afford to ignore such customer sentiments if they are su~ficiently broadly based.
On the other hand, it is essendal to recover sufficient revenues to 15 cover the cost of directory assistance calling, other infolmation services and long-distance service.
There are also areas in any telephone network where the availability of telephone toll services of various types exceeds the demands fM such services.
It is economically desirable for any telephone operating company to encourage 20 expanded use of excess available services, including toll services of all types. In extreme cases the ability to encourage expanded use of uch services may make the difference between economic viability and nonviability of the telephone service provider.
Solution and Summar~_f the Invention The above-descIibed problems are solved according to the invention by providing an economical telephone toll service in which a telephone subscriber selects the economical service by, for exarnple, sending an appropriate signal, and then dials his directory assistance call or other telephone toll call. After thecaller's options are determined and typically before signaling for the call is 30 commenced, a recorded-announcement of an aural or visual nature, or both, is connected to the subscriber's line, the announcement consisting of at least one adverdsement. The advertisements are selected from a databank accord;ng to ,~
~'3 some predetennined technique of selection, which may include any num'oer of factors or features to make the service attractive to subscribers and of a nature to make the service also sufficiently rewarding to advertisers. After the advertising announcement is completed, ~he toll call and/or directory assistance call is 5 processed as usual but at a reduced rate of charge or with automatic credit being given to the customer's account.
This type of service flexibly lends itself to a numbçr of subordinate features. There are various ways for the caller to invoke the service--for instance he can subscribe to it by a periodic or occasional choice. Alternatively, any 10 subscriber could invoke this service by dialing a special access code, for instance, wnich would connect into a 700 type service.
The system also lends i~self to arranging the service so that the needs of advenisers are appropriately taken into account so that their advertisement gets heard at least a certam minimum nurnber of times in an appropliate time period, 15 or so that it is heard by an appropriate demographic group of callers.
This new telephone toll service differs from telephone shopping services in that the caller is not looking for the specific informadon contained in the advertisement--indeed, he is looking for other information or seelcing to place a personal long-distance call. Nevertheless, he can in general be very interested in 20 the subject matter of the advertisement if the adverdsement selection technique is adapted to pick advertisements suited to his general interest.
The announcement peliod can be interactive so that the advertiser can be assured that the calling party actually listens to his ad, and they can be ofvarious lengths so that, for the particular demographic set or category of pe~ons 25 involved, the hearer is unli~ely to become bored during the announcement period.
One way of verifying that the caller is actually listening is for him to be asked to send either an alpha-numeric signal or a voico signal in response to intermittent queries interposed in the message. Particularly at the end of each advertisement, one might expect that the customer could be asked to press, for exarnple, the 30 number 9 on his telephone keypad. Also, content in the ad may be arranged hierarchically so that customer can press a button to hear more details of the ad for which more credit can be given.
Advantageously, the income from advertisers in respect to this service does not need to be fully equal to the reducdon in income from the using 35 telephone subscribers because of the characteristics of the service which 3~ 3 encourages using spare capacity in o~f-peak periods of the telephone system or habituates customers to making toll calls more frequently. Moreover, billing may be a rate reduction per call or a monthly credit towards some toll service. It is also possible that coupons good for the purchase of merchandise or services could be the ~orm, in whole or in part, in which the caller receives value for his cooperation.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention there is provided a telephone toll system of the type in which a local telephone station is connected to the telephone network through at least one telephone switching system including means for automatically establishing identification of the calling number and means for automatically determining charges for at least one toll service, said system being characterized by means for determining whether the calling number should receive a reduced rate or credit with respect to attending to recorded advertising and for generating the corresponding billing or credit, and means (control signal connection) for delaying access to the toll service while the caller's options are determined and means (message trunks) for delivering the recorded advertising to the local telephone station.
Brief Description of the Drawinq FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a telephone toll system embodying the present invention; and FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of parts of the system involved with selecting the type of announcement connected to a particular subscriber's line.
Detailed DescriPtion In FIG. 1, the local telephone station 11 is the typical telephone handset, in the usual case, and is connected by the typical local loop wires and connections to a local telephone switching system 12 which in turn connects through a toll switching system 14 to the total telephone network.
Interconnected with the local telephone switching system 12 and the toll switching system 14 is the advertising message system 13 which is adapted to provide the announcement feature and associated billing that has been generally summarized , .,~ ~.~
7~3 .
3a above.
In general, the local telephone station 11 is used by a local telephone customer, indicated schematically, to whom the billing will be returned which shows his reduced telephone toll charge rate or, alternatively, the lump sum credits he is receiving for listening to, or watching, advertising messages from advertising message system 13.
The internal connections of the system are, in more detail, the following. The line from local telephone station 11 will be routed, through portions of switching elements 15, to the directory assistant module of the local switching system 12 if that is the nature of the customer's request, and in general, this may have been reached by dialing 411 or by dialing 555-1212 after the appropriate area code.
Alternatively, the switching system 12 may also detect, depending on the prefixes which the customers dial, that the customer is seeking certain information services, such as time or weather. Request for either of these services may be an occasion to offer a subscriber a reduced rate or a credit in return for listening to, or watching, advertising messages from advertising message system 13.
''.\
, .~
1~3G7S'~
Technical Field . .
This invention relates to systems for providing telephone toll services such as, but not limited to, di~ectory assistance or long-distance calling.
S Problem -Since directory assis~ance charges were first instituted by telephone operating companies, some telephone customers have thought such charges to be excessive. Many of these same people also feel that charges for long-distance calling, although they have decreased at a surprising rate, are still too high.
lû In an era of decreasing regulation and increasing competitiYeness oftelephone service, telephone operating companies, both long-distance companies and local exchange companies, can ill afford to ignore such customer sentiments if they are su~ficiently broadly based.
On the other hand, it is essendal to recover sufficient revenues to 15 cover the cost of directory assistance calling, other infolmation services and long-distance service.
There are also areas in any telephone network where the availability of telephone toll services of various types exceeds the demands fM such services.
It is economically desirable for any telephone operating company to encourage 20 expanded use of excess available services, including toll services of all types. In extreme cases the ability to encourage expanded use of uch services may make the difference between economic viability and nonviability of the telephone service provider.
Solution and Summar~_f the Invention The above-descIibed problems are solved according to the invention by providing an economical telephone toll service in which a telephone subscriber selects the economical service by, for exarnple, sending an appropriate signal, and then dials his directory assistance call or other telephone toll call. After thecaller's options are determined and typically before signaling for the call is 30 commenced, a recorded-announcement of an aural or visual nature, or both, is connected to the subscriber's line, the announcement consisting of at least one adverdsement. The advertisements are selected from a databank accord;ng to ,~
~'3 some predetennined technique of selection, which may include any num'oer of factors or features to make the service attractive to subscribers and of a nature to make the service also sufficiently rewarding to advertisers. After the advertising announcement is completed, ~he toll call and/or directory assistance call is 5 processed as usual but at a reduced rate of charge or with automatic credit being given to the customer's account.
This type of service flexibly lends itself to a numbçr of subordinate features. There are various ways for the caller to invoke the service--for instance he can subscribe to it by a periodic or occasional choice. Alternatively, any 10 subscriber could invoke this service by dialing a special access code, for instance, wnich would connect into a 700 type service.
The system also lends i~self to arranging the service so that the needs of advenisers are appropriately taken into account so that their advertisement gets heard at least a certam minimum nurnber of times in an appropliate time period, 15 or so that it is heard by an appropriate demographic group of callers.
This new telephone toll service differs from telephone shopping services in that the caller is not looking for the specific informadon contained in the advertisement--indeed, he is looking for other information or seelcing to place a personal long-distance call. Nevertheless, he can in general be very interested in 20 the subject matter of the advertisement if the adverdsement selection technique is adapted to pick advertisements suited to his general interest.
The announcement peliod can be interactive so that the advertiser can be assured that the calling party actually listens to his ad, and they can be ofvarious lengths so that, for the particular demographic set or category of pe~ons 25 involved, the hearer is unli~ely to become bored during the announcement period.
One way of verifying that the caller is actually listening is for him to be asked to send either an alpha-numeric signal or a voico signal in response to intermittent queries interposed in the message. Particularly at the end of each advertisement, one might expect that the customer could be asked to press, for exarnple, the 30 number 9 on his telephone keypad. Also, content in the ad may be arranged hierarchically so that customer can press a button to hear more details of the ad for which more credit can be given.
Advantageously, the income from advertisers in respect to this service does not need to be fully equal to the reducdon in income from the using 35 telephone subscribers because of the characteristics of the service which 3~ 3 encourages using spare capacity in o~f-peak periods of the telephone system or habituates customers to making toll calls more frequently. Moreover, billing may be a rate reduction per call or a monthly credit towards some toll service. It is also possible that coupons good for the purchase of merchandise or services could be the ~orm, in whole or in part, in which the caller receives value for his cooperation.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention there is provided a telephone toll system of the type in which a local telephone station is connected to the telephone network through at least one telephone switching system including means for automatically establishing identification of the calling number and means for automatically determining charges for at least one toll service, said system being characterized by means for determining whether the calling number should receive a reduced rate or credit with respect to attending to recorded advertising and for generating the corresponding billing or credit, and means (control signal connection) for delaying access to the toll service while the caller's options are determined and means (message trunks) for delivering the recorded advertising to the local telephone station.
Brief Description of the Drawinq FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a telephone toll system embodying the present invention; and FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of parts of the system involved with selecting the type of announcement connected to a particular subscriber's line.
Detailed DescriPtion In FIG. 1, the local telephone station 11 is the typical telephone handset, in the usual case, and is connected by the typical local loop wires and connections to a local telephone switching system 12 which in turn connects through a toll switching system 14 to the total telephone network.
Interconnected with the local telephone switching system 12 and the toll switching system 14 is the advertising message system 13 which is adapted to provide the announcement feature and associated billing that has been generally summarized , .,~ ~.~
7~3 .
3a above.
In general, the local telephone station 11 is used by a local telephone customer, indicated schematically, to whom the billing will be returned which shows his reduced telephone toll charge rate or, alternatively, the lump sum credits he is receiving for listening to, or watching, advertising messages from advertising message system 13.
The internal connections of the system are, in more detail, the following. The line from local telephone station 11 will be routed, through portions of switching elements 15, to the directory assistant module of the local switching system 12 if that is the nature of the customer's request, and in general, this may have been reached by dialing 411 or by dialing 555-1212 after the appropriate area code.
Alternatively, the switching system 12 may also detect, depending on the prefixes which the customers dial, that the customer is seeking certain information services, such as time or weather. Request for either of these services may be an occasion to offer a subscriber a reduced rate or a credit in return for listening to, or watching, advertising messages from advertising message system 13.
''.\
, .~
1~3G7S'~
It is anticipated that the broadest volume of use will result from long-distance calling. The routine automatic number identification (ANI) within local~elephone switching system 12, together with the subscriber test equipment in advertising message system 13, will identify the local customer in question as 5 being one who wants to receive reduced long-distance calling rates so that hisincoming line will automatically be connected to advertising message system 13 before his toll call is completed. In the simplest form of the selvice, it is not necessaly to do an ANI look-up if, for exarnple, the customer initiated his current call by dialing appropriate additional (initial or final) digits to indicate he wants tO
10 receive the discolmt. Alternatively, in either version, if different people are using the same line (as in a family phone) a two-digit prefix could be used--first digit to activate service; second digit to specify the person.
In all of the foregoing situations identified in local telephone switching system 12, the result will be that a signal is sent to advertising message 15 system 13 which results in a control signal being sent to toll switching system 12 to switching elements 16 to prevent the further progress of the subscriber's call until the new features of this toll service have been provided. Therefore, at this point, the local telephone subscriber is not in contact with the larger telephone network.
For billing purposes, all of the local subscriber9s calls, when they involve possible toll charges, are subjected to ANI as indicated in the right-hand block of local telephone switching system 12. This is done quickly and with little trouble in cuIrent telephone systems, and can be done initially, or later, as indicated above. In either case, it is possible to subjeci the call to the subscriber 25 test indicated in advertising message system 13 in order to detelmine whether the particular calling party is one who desires the reduced rate toll service. For those subscnbers who have no interest in such a service and who don't want to experience delay in accessing the network through toll switching system 14, the subscriber test can immediately detennine that this person's call should not be 30 delayed or interfered with but should be connected directly to toll switchingsystem 14. All such tests can be performed sufflciently rapidly so that the calling party will be unaware of the operations that have just been described.
On the other hand, if the subscTiber test in advertising message system 13 determines that the calUng party is one who wishes a reduced rate of 35 calling or credit in return f~r auditing or otherwise receiving advertising, then an ~L~f3~5~
appropriate message is generated by the appropriate equipment in system 13 and routed via one of the message ~runks through switching systems 14 and 12 to local telephone station 11.
In point of fact, this message may be of either an aural or visual S nature, especially if the local subscriber has rnade available a monitor or television set connected to his telephone line. When this message ends, the control networkwithin toll switching system 14 then removes the block on the signaling for the toll call and the call goes out over the network in the usual fashion. It should be apparent that in order to block the dialed call as described, the control elements of lO the toll switching system 14 require sufffcient storage capability to store the calling informadon. It should be noted that the caller has another option: the ad may be played during the conversation with both caller and called party listening.
In this case, the blocking of the call would condnue only until this option of the caller was determined.
Al~o at the conclusion of the message, the appropriate billing item is generated by the billing portion of the advertising message system 13, and this reduced rate billing and/or credit is accumulated and is sent with the customer's monthly bill to his home.
Among the various bases for determinin~g wha~ advertising message 20 will he connected to which calling party's line, foremost are various types of demographic information that are available to the system. For example, a certainamount of demographic focus is provided via the central office code contained inthe ANI. A particular message could be directed to, for example, directory assistance requests ~om a given number plan area where it is de~ermined that 25 persons living in that area are likely to be interested in certain kinds of subject matte~. Similar information can be derived from the access code dialed or central office code dialed of the called party which shows that the caller has an interest in another number plan area or in another state or region of the country. This sort of screening also makes it possible to eliminate certain kinds of ads for certain 30 classes of callers, for example, for businesses. Indeed, in the latter case, even if the appropriate choice were to be made for obtaining of the reduced rate telephone toll service with adver~ising, it may be des~rable to render businesses ineligible for this Idnd of service. The ANI makes it possible to provide this degree of limitation of the service.
- ~2~6~5 Certain other bases for determ~ning the message to be provided can be explained from the following example. Let us assume that a prefix (symbol such as ~ or ~ akeady on the telephone keypad) is designated as the access code for activating this new economical toll service. A toll call would then be placed byS dialing, for exarnple, ~ + (area code)+(seven digit number). The local centraloffice, recognizing that the caller is interested in the subject service, will play a recorded message as follows:
"Choos one, two or three minutes of advertisement by pressing keys 1, 2 or 3 on your telephone pad".
10 Once the caller presses the key, a ~ecorded voice announcement and/or television display will be sent to the calling party. A set of advertisements is chosen to occupy the chosen announcement time perlod since most individual advertisements will be much shorter than a rninute.
These announcements could also have been chosen on a random basis, 15 or they could have been chosen to provide sufficient exposure to each of the advertisers who provided the ads for this service. In any event these advertisements will be stored in a large-scale mass memory.
In order that the advertisements may be more focussed to the interests of the caller and therefore more likely to be productive for the advertiser, a caller 20 generally interested in this service may let the telephone company know by, for example, an appropriate check-off on his monthly bill, which of several different categories of subjects he is interested in; or a separate profile card could ~e filled out by dle caller from ~me-to-time giving the telephone company more detailed back~ound and interest inforrnation which would be of assistance.
Since an interest profile is specific to a person and not a telephone numb~, after the inidal preliminary announcement sent out as desc~ibed above, the message could ask the caller to identify himself with regard to which of many individuals associated with this specific calling number he happens to be. This information then will affect which set of recorded advertisements he hears.
Fur~her, within the interest profile of the caller, a round-robin type of sequencing of appropriate adver~sements will help to insure that no appropriate advertisements get neglected.
~3~;7~i~
10 receive the discolmt. Alternatively, in either version, if different people are using the same line (as in a family phone) a two-digit prefix could be used--first digit to activate service; second digit to specify the person.
In all of the foregoing situations identified in local telephone switching system 12, the result will be that a signal is sent to advertising message 15 system 13 which results in a control signal being sent to toll switching system 12 to switching elements 16 to prevent the further progress of the subscriber's call until the new features of this toll service have been provided. Therefore, at this point, the local telephone subscriber is not in contact with the larger telephone network.
For billing purposes, all of the local subscriber9s calls, when they involve possible toll charges, are subjected to ANI as indicated in the right-hand block of local telephone switching system 12. This is done quickly and with little trouble in cuIrent telephone systems, and can be done initially, or later, as indicated above. In either case, it is possible to subjeci the call to the subscriber 25 test indicated in advertising message system 13 in order to detelmine whether the particular calling party is one who desires the reduced rate toll service. For those subscnbers who have no interest in such a service and who don't want to experience delay in accessing the network through toll switching system 14, the subscriber test can immediately detennine that this person's call should not be 30 delayed or interfered with but should be connected directly to toll switchingsystem 14. All such tests can be performed sufflciently rapidly so that the calling party will be unaware of the operations that have just been described.
On the other hand, if the subscTiber test in advertising message system 13 determines that the calUng party is one who wishes a reduced rate of 35 calling or credit in return f~r auditing or otherwise receiving advertising, then an ~L~f3~5~
appropriate message is generated by the appropriate equipment in system 13 and routed via one of the message ~runks through switching systems 14 and 12 to local telephone station 11.
In point of fact, this message may be of either an aural or visual S nature, especially if the local subscriber has rnade available a monitor or television set connected to his telephone line. When this message ends, the control networkwithin toll switching system 14 then removes the block on the signaling for the toll call and the call goes out over the network in the usual fashion. It should be apparent that in order to block the dialed call as described, the control elements of lO the toll switching system 14 require sufffcient storage capability to store the calling informadon. It should be noted that the caller has another option: the ad may be played during the conversation with both caller and called party listening.
In this case, the blocking of the call would condnue only until this option of the caller was determined.
Al~o at the conclusion of the message, the appropriate billing item is generated by the billing portion of the advertising message system 13, and this reduced rate billing and/or credit is accumulated and is sent with the customer's monthly bill to his home.
Among the various bases for determinin~g wha~ advertising message 20 will he connected to which calling party's line, foremost are various types of demographic information that are available to the system. For example, a certainamount of demographic focus is provided via the central office code contained inthe ANI. A particular message could be directed to, for example, directory assistance requests ~om a given number plan area where it is de~ermined that 25 persons living in that area are likely to be interested in certain kinds of subject matte~. Similar information can be derived from the access code dialed or central office code dialed of the called party which shows that the caller has an interest in another number plan area or in another state or region of the country. This sort of screening also makes it possible to eliminate certain kinds of ads for certain 30 classes of callers, for example, for businesses. Indeed, in the latter case, even if the appropriate choice were to be made for obtaining of the reduced rate telephone toll service with adver~ising, it may be des~rable to render businesses ineligible for this Idnd of service. The ANI makes it possible to provide this degree of limitation of the service.
- ~2~6~5 Certain other bases for determ~ning the message to be provided can be explained from the following example. Let us assume that a prefix (symbol such as ~ or ~ akeady on the telephone keypad) is designated as the access code for activating this new economical toll service. A toll call would then be placed byS dialing, for exarnple, ~ + (area code)+(seven digit number). The local centraloffice, recognizing that the caller is interested in the subject service, will play a recorded message as follows:
"Choos one, two or three minutes of advertisement by pressing keys 1, 2 or 3 on your telephone pad".
10 Once the caller presses the key, a ~ecorded voice announcement and/or television display will be sent to the calling party. A set of advertisements is chosen to occupy the chosen announcement time perlod since most individual advertisements will be much shorter than a rninute.
These announcements could also have been chosen on a random basis, 15 or they could have been chosen to provide sufficient exposure to each of the advertisers who provided the ads for this service. In any event these advertisements will be stored in a large-scale mass memory.
In order that the advertisements may be more focussed to the interests of the caller and therefore more likely to be productive for the advertiser, a caller 20 generally interested in this service may let the telephone company know by, for example, an appropriate check-off on his monthly bill, which of several different categories of subjects he is interested in; or a separate profile card could ~e filled out by dle caller from ~me-to-time giving the telephone company more detailed back~ound and interest inforrnation which would be of assistance.
Since an interest profile is specific to a person and not a telephone numb~, after the inidal preliminary announcement sent out as desc~ibed above, the message could ask the caller to identify himself with regard to which of many individuals associated with this specific calling number he happens to be. This information then will affect which set of recorded advertisements he hears.
Fur~her, within the interest profile of the caller, a round-robin type of sequencing of appropriate adver~sements will help to insure that no appropriate advertisements get neglected.
~3~;7~i~
Another possible implementation is as follows: imagine several tapes being continuously played at the information service block (15). Each tape contains information about a particular interest. Each customer requesting such a service will be connected to this tape for a certain amount of time; they vill hear S more or less randomly an ad from the tape. Actual implemen~ation may not use a tape, but this will be cheaper.
In all of the foregoing versions of the service, it should be apparent that the interactive logic could be extended to make it possible for the customer to indicate, e.g, by dialing appropriate digits, that he wishes written material to be 10 sent to him or that he wishes to taLk to a salesman--now or later.
It should be clear that from the mass of data involved in the profile cards and the ANI and billing information generated as time passes that there will be much statistical informatiotl that can be made available eo advertisers and which will increase the value of the service to them. Nevereheless, effort should 15 be made to ensure privacy of specific individuals.
We have attempted to lay out in FIG. 2 a chart illustrating most of the foregoing message choice criteria in a logical manner.
It should be apparent that many modifications of this service and of thess bases for choices can be made within the spirit and scope of our invention.
.~
In all of the foregoing versions of the service, it should be apparent that the interactive logic could be extended to make it possible for the customer to indicate, e.g, by dialing appropriate digits, that he wishes written material to be 10 sent to him or that he wishes to taLk to a salesman--now or later.
It should be clear that from the mass of data involved in the profile cards and the ANI and billing information generated as time passes that there will be much statistical informatiotl that can be made available eo advertisers and which will increase the value of the service to them. Nevereheless, effort should 15 be made to ensure privacy of specific individuals.
We have attempted to lay out in FIG. 2 a chart illustrating most of the foregoing message choice criteria in a logical manner.
It should be apparent that many modifications of this service and of thess bases for choices can be made within the spirit and scope of our invention.
.~
Claims (8)
1. A telephone toll system of the type in which a local telephone station is connected to the telephone network through at least one telephone switching system including means for automatically establishing identification of the calling number and means for automatically determining charges for at least one toll service, said system being characterized by means for determining whether the calling number should receive a reduced rate or credit with respect to attending to recorded advertising and for generating the corresponding billing or credit, and means (control signal connection) for delaying access to the toll service while the caller's options are determined and means (message trunks) for delivering the recorded advertising to the local telephone station.
2. A telephone toll system of the type claimed in claim 1 further characterized by means (e.g., access code, service selected, called number, or automatic number identification) for selecting the recorded advertising to be delivered to the local telephone station.
3. A telephone toll system of the type claimed in claim 2 further characterized in that the determining means and/or selecting means is interactive with the local telephone station.
4. A telephone toll system of the type claimed in claim 3 further characterized in that the telephone toll service is directory assistance calling.
5. A telephone toll system of the type claimed in claim 3 characterized in that the telephone toll service is a long-distance calling.
6. A telephone toll system of the type claimed in claim 2 characterized in that the selecting means employs a capability for assigning relative interest in types of advertising with respect to at least one caller using the local telephone station.
7. A telephone toll system of the type claimed in claim 3 further characterized in that the selecting means includes means for interacting with the local telephone station to assign relative interest in types of advertising.
8. A telephone toll system of the type claimed in claim 1, 3 or 7 characterized in that the means for delaying access continues while the delivering means delivers the recorded advertising.
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Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
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US066,917 | 1979-08-21 | ||
US07/066,917 US4850007A (en) | 1987-06-25 | 1987-06-25 | Telephone toll service with advertising |
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Publication Number | Publication Date |
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CA1286759C true CA1286759C (en) | 1991-07-23 |
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CA000566904A Expired - Fee Related CA1286759C (en) | 1987-06-25 | 1988-05-16 | Telephone toll service with advertising |
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JP (1) | JPS6417553A (en) |
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Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
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US3111561A (en) * | 1959-11-23 | 1963-11-19 | American Telephone & Telegraph | Intercept equipment |
US3876840A (en) * | 1973-05-25 | 1975-04-08 | Jr Ellis H Bryant | Automatic time-temperature-message announcing system |
US4165446A (en) * | 1977-04-08 | 1979-08-21 | Flowers Thomas E | Data transmission systems (using internal systems equipment, services and procedures of telephone companies) |
JPS5787661A (en) * | 1980-11-20 | 1982-06-01 | Nec Corp | Callout signal transmission system in telephone exchange system |
US4510349A (en) * | 1981-12-30 | 1985-04-09 | Segre Amar Leonello | System and method for transmitting messages to a telephone set through the subscriber's line in a telephone system |
JPS58173951A (en) * | 1982-04-05 | 1983-10-12 | Nippon Telegr & Teleph Corp <Ntt> | Information service control system of communication network |
JPS58187056A (en) * | 1982-04-26 | 1983-11-01 | Nippon Telegr & Teleph Corp <Ntt> | Message transmitting method |
-
1987
- 1987-06-25 US US07/066,917 patent/US4850007A/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
-
1988
- 1988-05-16 CA CA000566904A patent/CA1286759C/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
- 1988-06-16 JP JP63147075A patent/JPS6417553A/en active Granted
- 1988-06-20 GB GB8814596A patent/GB2206265B/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
- 1988-06-24 AU AU18385/88A patent/AU607233B2/en not_active Ceased
Also Published As
Publication number | Publication date |
---|---|
JPS6417553A (en) | 1989-01-20 |
JPH0458221B2 (en) | 1992-09-16 |
AU1838588A (en) | 1989-01-05 |
AU607233B2 (en) | 1991-02-28 |
US4850007A (en) | 1989-07-18 |
GB2206265B (en) | 1991-02-13 |
GB8814596D0 (en) | 1988-07-27 |
GB2206265A (en) | 1988-12-29 |
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Legal Events
Date | Code | Title | Description |
---|---|---|---|
MKLA | Lapsed |