FI105004B - Method for determining telephone numbers - Google Patents

Description

105004

A method to find out a phone number

The present invention is directed to a method for retrieving a subscriber subscriber telephone number based on some search information, such as the name of the subscriber subscriber, as set forth in the preamble of claim 1.

The telephone numbers of the subscriber lines of each telecommunications operator are usually printed in the simplest phonebook format so that the telephone numbers of the subscriber lines of several telecommunication operators may be arranged in one telephone directory, for example, alphabetically according to the subscriber names. At present, the subscriber line telephone numbers are also available in CD-ROM format, so a single CD-ROM can hold the telephone numbers of virtually all subscriber lines in the same state.

Phone directories are bulky and heavy, which makes it difficult to carry with them. In addition, the pu-20 telephone directories associated with payphones are easily subject to vandalism, which may cause the phone number information being retrieved to be uncovered. To read the data on a CD-ROM requires a suitable reading device, such as a computer with a CD-ROM drive. The size and weight of laptops has diminished as computers have evolved, but still carrying them is not always possible or meaningful.

m For example, you can use a phonebook that fits in your pocket and can be easily carried with you to store key phone numbers. Electronic memos have also been developed which can store a great variety of information, including telephone numbers. However, such memos may not contain the rarely needed phone numbers. In addition, information in phone books, CD-ROMs, and phonebooks may become outdated when a person moves to another location or for any other reason when a phone number changes.

European patent application EP-624 965 discloses a method and system in which a data processing device connected to a telephone can browse a database containing telephone and subscriber data of subscriber lines. In the method disclosed in the publication, the subscriber information is retrieved, for example, by last name, whereupon the letters entered are used to print to the data processing device a list of persons or companies whose names match the given letters. This way you can find the phone number of the person or company you are looking for. The disadvantage of the method disclosed in the publication is e.g. the fact that you need to connect a phone to your phone to use the method, which makes it more difficult to apply, especially when traveling.

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The object of the present invention is to eliminate the above drawbacks to the greatest extent and to increase the state of the art in the art. The invention is based on the idea that a short message service 15 (SMS) or a corresponding SMS messaging service is utilized in determining the telephone number of a subscriber line. Preferably, the display device is a telecommunication terminal display device, for example a mobile station display device, and the telecommunication terminal keypad is used to enter the paging information of the person sought. The invention is characterized by what is said in the characterizing part of claim 1 of the accompanying claims.

The invention provides significant advantages over prior art methods. Using the method of the present invention, no telephone directory is required, as is no data processing device in situations where a telephone number is to be retrieved. This is especially useful when traveling.

The invention will now be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figures 1a and 2b show a method according to the invention as a flowchart and Fig. 2 illustrates a mobile station which can be used in applying the method according to the invention.

Figure 1 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of the method of the present invention. In this example, 105004 is used as a telecommunications terminal 1, which is connected to a mobile network in which a short message service or a corresponding text messaging service is available. One such mobile communication system is the GSM system. When the user of the mobile station 1 wants to find out the telephone number of a person 5, the user selects the telephone directory function (block 101) from the action menu of the mobile station 1 (not shown). In this case, the mobile station 1 preferably provides the display element 2 with a menu asking for the surname of the person to be searched (block 102). The user can then enter a lookup profile (block 103), e.g., the full surname or al-10, whereby, for example, the asterisk informs the mobile station that all persons whose last name begins with a given string are searched. The search can also be performed by, for example, indicating that the character in question can be any one of the characters on the screen. This will search for people with the same name as the 15 letters, but the letters on the on-screen key can be anything.

Mobile telephones, like other telecommunications terminals, usually do not have their own keypad for letters, but letters 20 can be entered by means of numeric keys. In this case, the application preferably sets the keyboard to text mode. For example, the letters a, b and c can be entered using the numeric key "1" (denoted by reference 8 in Figure 2). The number of times the key 8 is pressed indicates which of the three options is desired. For example, the letter a is formed by one keystroke 8, the b key two consecutive keystrokes 8 and the letter c three consecutive keystrokes 8. Similarly, the letters d, e and f may be formed by the numeric key "2" (denoted by reference numeral 9). By this principle, all alphabets can be formed using the keypad of the mobile station 1 30. Preferably, there is a short pause between letters, allowing the application to distinguish between consecutive characters.

: For example, the string "ee *" is preferably entered by first pressing the number key "2" twice in a row. Thereafter, a pause is held (e.g., 1 sec) and the "2" key is pressed again twice 35 times. After a short pause, press the key once

The combination of last name and first name can also be used as search criteria, in which case asterisks and punctuation can also be used. In addition, 4 105004 can be searched by address and by surname, first name and address compounds.

Once the search criteria have been entered, for example, the OK key 3 indicates that the paging profile is OK, whereby the mobile station generates a short message message (block 104) which is transmitted to the mobile switching center (block 105). The mobile switching center processes the short message, and upon detection of the phonebook short message in question, it transmits the information to the telephone directory application software for retrieving the telephone number information 10 (block 106). As a parameter, the given search profile is passed to the software. The search profile may further include a city name or area code, whereby the mobile switching center preferably establishes a data connection to the telecommunication network in whose area the telecommunication access number is sought (block 107). The telephone-15 exchange of the telecommunication network in question then launches the telephone directory application.

The phonebook application generates a short message message which is sent in response to a user's mobile station 1, where the short message message is processed and displayed by the display means 2 on the contents of the short message message.

20 Because of the limited number of characters that can be sent in a short message (up to 160 characters in the GSM system), in some cases, several short messages may be needed to display the phone numbers found.

25 If the search profile has been sufficiently accurate, that is, based on the search profile, only one subscriber line is found, the telephone number found by the display element 2 is displayed (block 108). However, it is often the case that the search profile has two or more subscriber lines, in which case the display element displays the name information and telephone number of each subscriber line. The display element 2 has a limited number of characters that can be displayed at 30 increments, so that when the number of characters displayed exceeds the capacity of the display element 2, the scroll keys 4,5 must be used to display the next (block 109) or preceding (block 110) The scroll keys 4, 5 may be used as the keys of the mobile station 1. '35 For example, the up arrow 4 button can scroll backwards and the down arrow 5 to move forward. If the display number 2 displays the telephone number of more than one subscriber line at a time, the active telephone number may be indicated, for example, by reversing the character and the background color of the symbol 105004 as in other telephone numbers. Mobile phones typically use an LCD display with only two levels of brightness available: dark and light. In this case, for example, the active phone number may be displayed such that the information of the active telephone number is shown in dark background as light characters and other information is shown in light background as dark characters.

Once the telephone number of the person to be retrieved has been found, the call can preferably be established by pressing the call key 6 (block 111) 10, whereupon the mobile station establishes a call request according to the telephone number it has received from the telephone directory application. The requested telephone number may also be stored in the memory of the mobile station 1 (block 112), for example in the memory of the SIM card (Subscriber Identity Module), whereby the telephone number and the name of the person are also more accessible.

When searching for a phone number, it may also happen that the given search profile does not find a phone number. This may also be notified to the user, preferably as a short message 20 to be sent to the mobile station 1 (block 113).

In applying the method according to the invention, the name of the person to be retrieved can be formed in a number of ways, for example by forming a query screen in the mobile application software 2, after which the user enters information corresponding to the query, e.g. Then the following query screen is created asking for example the person's first name. The query can be interrupted, for example, by the call key 6, whereupon the search profile is formed from the given information. The query may also be formed by the user typing the last name and the first name, for example, separated by a comma, and by pressing the call key 6, the mobile station j generates a query message through the mobile exchange to Advantageously, the above steps can be interrupted by the call termination key 7, whereby the mobile station 1 returns to normal mode.

6 105004

The invention can also be applied to other wireless communication devices, such as cordless telephones.

The invention is not limited to the above embodiments, but may be modified within the scope of the appended claims.

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Claims (9)

105004 7 A method for retrieving a telephone number of a subscriber line connected to a telecommunications network, wherein the subscriber subscriber's identity, such as surname, forename and address, is stored in the telecommunication switching center, characterized by the fact that wherein the keypad of the wireless communications device (1) provides at least a portion of the subscriber-10 interface identification information transmitted to the telecommunications network for generating at least one response message based on the paging information, the wireless communication display element (2) displaying at least a portion of the response message content. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the SMS is a short message. Method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the response message is a short message message. 20 Method according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the wireless communication device (1) is a mobile station. Method according to claim 4, characterized in that the mobile station (1) is a GSM mobile station. Method according to one of Claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the wireless communication device (1) is a cordless telephone. Method according to one of Claims 1 to 6, characterized in that one telephone number can be selected from the response message. A method according to claim 7, characterized in that the selected telephone number can be stored in the memory of the wireless communication device. 105004 A method according to claim 7, characterized in that the wireless message (1) initiates a call setup based on the telephone number selected from the response message. 105004 9 Patently: