GB2479345A

GB2479345A - Designating a regional code in a phone book for a given number dependent upon a previous call connection event

Info

Publication number: GB2479345A
Application number: GB1005255A
Authority: GB
Inventors: John Raymond Knight; Glen Adam
Original assignee: Vodafone IP Licensing Ltd
Current assignee: Vodafone IP Licensing Ltd
Priority date: 2010-03-29
Filing date: 2010-03-29
Publication date: 2011-10-12
Also published as: GB201005255D0

Abstract

In a mobile communication network including a mobile terminal configured to initiate and receive communications using the network, a method of confirming a regional code (i.e. international dialing code/country code) for a given number to which the mobile terminal seeks to initiate a communication, the method including: detecting a communication being initiated between the mobile terminal and the given number by a mobile terminal; determining whether a regional code is associated with the given number; and where there is no regional code, monitoring at least one different call connection event to determine whether a regional code can be confirmed for the given number.Aspects of the invention comprise the call connection event includes one or more of: a successful communication to the given number, a duration of a call to the given number exceeding a predetermined minimum level, a returned communication from the given number being established. Once the number of successful uses of the number meets or exceeds the threshold, the local code can be added to the applicable address book entry and the profile deleted. In this way, the application is able to build a level of certainty before updating the applicable address book entry.

Description

MOBILE COMMUNICATION TERMINALS AND METHODS OF

OPERATION

Summary of the invention

The present invention relates generally to a mobile communication system.

More particularly, the present invention relates to a mobile terminal configured for use in a mobile telecommunications network and a method of operation of such a mobile terminal.

Background

Despite the international proliferation of mobile telecommunication networks and the cooperation between network providers in different countries, there are still aspects of incompatibility for mobile terminal users when roaming between countries.

One particular problem is that phone numbers are country-specific, and require a International dialling or country code to be reachable when called whilst the terminal user is roaming.

If a number is called whilst the user is roaming, which is not in the correct format (i.e. without the international dialling code), in most situations the call will not be able to be connected, and the call will be dropped. This, however, results in a waste of network resources, poor user experience and potentially a loss of revenue.

It is possible for the user to manually insert the applicable country code each time they enter a new number into their terminal, or on a needs basis (i.e. before making a call whilst roaming).

However, this is not a convenient approach for the terminal user, particularly if they do not travel overseas very often, and so do not necessarily consider the manual addition of a country code necessary when adding a new number to their phone. As to the addition of the country code when required, this can be laborious for the user, particularly if they are unfamiliar with how to edit numbers in their phone. It is also time consuming for the user, particularly as the need to add the country code would likely occur at the time of them wanting and/or needing to establish the communication, and therefore may cause inconvenience by delaying an urgent call. Additionally, identifying the correct country code and inputting it in the correct format while mobile can lead to errors resulting in failed calls.

A network solution has also been proposed, whereby the roamed network identifies calls in its network that are not capable of being connected (e.g. where the number format does not match) and routes such calls to the calling party's home network. This approach assumes that the calling party is trying to establish a call to its home network, which is not necessarily the case. Further, this approach also does not account for situations where the number format being called does match a local number, thereby resulting in an incorrect connection being made. A more accurate approach to addressing these problems therefore is needed.

More specifically, the problem of terminal users storing phone numbers for their contacts without an International dialling code needs to be addressed, as the absence of these codes can cause difficulties when making phone calls from abroad.

It is therefore an object of the invention to obviate or at least mitigate the aforementioned problem.

Summary of the Invention

In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an application for use in a mobile communication network the application configured to: detect a communication being initiated between a mobile terminal and a given number; determine whether a regional code is associated with the given number; and where there is no regional code, monitoring the communication to detect the occurrence of a call connection event to determine whether the given number can be designated with an appropriate regional code.

In accordance with a further aspect, the present invention provides, in a mobile communication network including a mobile terminal configured to initiate and receive communications using the network, a method of confirming a regional code for a given number to which the mobile terminal seeks to initiate a communication, the method including: detecting a communication being initiated between the mobile terminal and the given number by a mobile terminal; determining whether a regional code is associated with the given number; and where there is no regional code, monitoring at least one different call connection event to determine whether a regional code can be confirmed for the given number.

Preferably the one or more different call connection events that the application is configured to monitor includes one or more of the following: a) a successful communication being established to the given number; b) a duration of a call to the given number exceeding a predetermined minimum level; c) a returned communication from the given number being established; d) a duration of a returned call from the given number exceeding a predetermined minimum level.

Advantageously, these aspects of the invention enable evidence to be compiled of successful communications to/from numbers without regional codes assigned, and to allocate the local regional code once a predefined level of certainty has been met. Similarly, where regional codes are assigned to given numbers, this approach enables those regional codes to be verified as correct.

In accordance with an additional aspect of the invention, there is provided an application for use in a mobile communication network the application configured to: detect a communication being initiated to a given number by a mobile terminal; when the communication is successfully initiated, determining whether a regional code is associated with the given number; and where: a regional code is associated with the given number, storing a first reference in relation to the given number; or there is no regional code, storing a second reference in relation to the given number.

The first and second references may be information tags, regional codes and/or a combination thereof The actual reference applied is preferably dependent upon the result of call event monitoring, to determine if communications are successfully being established in relation to the given number.

Other aspects of the invention are set out in the attached claims.

Brief Description of the Drawings

For a better understanding of the present invention, reference will now be made, by way of example only, to the accompanying drawings in which:-Figure 1 illustrates an example telecommunications network configuration useful in explaining the embodiments of the invention; and Figure 2 illustrates a flow chart explaining an implementation of an embodiment of the invention.

Detailed Description

Figure 1 illustrates an example telecommunications network configuration in which embodiments of the present invention may be implemented.

A mobile terminal (UE) is shown in Figure 1 at 1. The mobile terminal may be any suitable portable device, including a handheld mobile telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), dedicated traffic navigation device or a laptop computer equipped with a network connectivity datacard.

The telecommunications network illustrated includes a number of base stations, where each base station (BS) serves a respective cell of the cellular/mobile telecommunication network. The mobile terminal will register with a BS, typically the one providing it with the strongest signal (usually, but not necessarily, the closest BS) in order to be able to send and receive communications across the telecommunications network.

In currently deployed cellular networks there are typically two different Radio Access Technologies: a second generation (2G) design following the GSM radio access standards and a third generation (3G) design following UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) design. A 4G access standard, Long Term Evolution (LTE) is currently being trialled, so in the future there may also be further access standards coexisting.

In a 2G mobile telecommunications network, such as GSM, each base station comprises a base transmission station (BTS) and a base station controller (BSC).

The BSC may control more than one BTS. The BTSs and the BSCs comprise the radio access network.

In a 3G mobile telecommunications network, such as UMTS, each base station comprises a node B and a radio network controller (RNC). An RNC may control more than one node B. The node Bs and RNCs comprise the radio access network.

In the 4G LTE mobile telecommunications network, each base station comprises an eNode B which combines the RNC and Node B functionalities. The base stations are arranged in groups and each group of base stations is controlled by a io Mobility Management Entity (MME) and a User Plane Entity (UPE).

The exact network configuration is not essential to the invention, so of course other mobile network configurations are possible.

Conventionally, in a UMTS network, the base stations are arranged in groups and each group of base stations is controlled by one serving GPRS support node (SGSN), such as SGSN 16 for base stations 3, 4 and 5. As shown in Figure 1, the network has another SGSN 18, which is controlling a further three base stations 7, 8 and 9. In practice, the network will incorporate many more SGSNs and base stations than shown in Figure 1.

The SGSNs 16 and 18 are provided to support communications in the packet switched domain -such as GPRS data transmissions. The SGSNs 16 and 18 are in turn connected to a gateway GPRS support node (GGSN -not shown), which provides a gateway to data networks, such as the Internet.

Each mobile terminal, to be communicable with the telecommunications networks, is typically provided with a smart card or SIM which identifies the subscriber to the network. In this regard, the SIM card is pre-programmed with a unique identification number, the "International Mobile Subscriber Identity" (IMSI), for use by the networks. Another identifier is the MSISDN, which is the telephone number which uniquely identifies the user's network subscription.

When a terminal is registered with a BS, and therefore is attached to the network, a home location register (HLR) 10 in the network stores a unique terminal identifier, typically the IMSI, along with the BS identity, so that network traffic can be correctly directed towards the mobile terminal.

With this background in mind, a first embodiment of the invention will be described. In this first embodiment of the invention, an application is provided on the mobile terminal 1 which is configured to intelligently gather data relating to communications made by the terminal, and make a determination regarding the applicable location of those dialled numbers. The application may be implemented in any suitable manner, including software, hardware and a combination thereof For instance, the user will have an address book on their mobile terminal, typically with one or more contact numbers recorded for each entry. These numbers may include a regional code, such as an international dialling code if the numbers are for friends living overseas. Contact numbers for friends who are locally located (e.g. within the same country) may include the applicable country code (e.g. "44" for the United Kingdom) but more often than not this code will not be included, since the "44" code is not needed when dialled from within the United Kingdom.

Upon the user accessing this address book, and dialling a number for which a country code is not allocated, the number will be sent to the radio access network serving the mobile terminal, and the network will typically assume that the number is a local number and seek to connect it. If the call is to a local number (and the terminal is located "locally") the connection will succeed.

The application on the terminal in this situation is configured to recognise when a call is being made and analyse the number being used. Where the number includes a regional code (i.e. international dialling code/country code), no action needs to be taken. However, where the number dialled does not include a regional code, then according to this embodiment of the invention, the application seeks to identify an applicable regional code with a level of certainty.

More specifically, the application seeks to determine if it has sufficient proof to determine the number as a local number.

To obtain this proof the application will monitor the communication being established. If, for instance, the call is successfully connected, the application may take this as proof that the number is a local number, and insert the local regional code in the address book. It is however preferable that stronger proof is obtained, particularly to account for the call being connected to the wrong number.

Therefore the application is ideally configured to undertake a number of checks in relation to the dialled number and only insert the local regional code once a particular number/type of checks have been successfully met (e.g. the number of checks meets or exceeds a predetermined threshold). Examples of checks that may be used are: * a successful call being made to the dialled number a plurality of times; * a successful call being made to the dialled number and the duration of the call exceeding a minimum limit (i.e. at least 30 seconds long, to account for possible human exchanges establishing that the dialled number was incorrect) * a return call being made from the dialled number; * a return call being made to the dialled number and the duration of the call exceeding a minimum limit.

These checks should still possible when a change of network occurs (e.g. when a number is called whose network is not the home network, if the call is unsuccessful the contact can be appropriately tagged, otherwise no action is taken) and/or a change to cell location occurs (e.g. if a call is made from a new cell location (i.e. the same call had previously been successful from a different cell location) and the call fails then the contact tag can be changed).

The application may base the threshold on only one of these examples, or a combination thereof As can be seen from these examples, the verification process typically requires more than one call to be made to/from a particular number, and so the application is configured to create a profile for each number dialled, and build on this profile as the number is successfully used. Once the number of successful uses of the number meets or exceeds the threshold, the local code can be added to the applicable address book entry and the profile deleted.

In this way, the application is able to build a level of certainty before updating the applicable address book entry.

An implementation of this embodiment of the invention will be described with reference to Figure 2. In this implementation, the application utilises tags to keep track of the status of numbers in the address book before updating with the appropriate regional code occurs. The described process is also able to verify existing prefixes/regional codes that are included in the address book.

The flow chart in Figure 2 shows that, upon the mobile terminal user accessing a number (20) in the terminal address book, the application will determine whether or not a call is attempted to this number. Where a call is not made, and the entry does not have any existing tags, the application may tag the accessed number with a default tag, such as "unknown" (22) or "error" (25). Otherwise the application may take no action.

The "unknown" tag is useful as it provides a default identifier for this type of number, which can be particularly useful for enabling all numbers to be searched and/or modified by status. For example, an option from the address book could be "update unknown numbers with international dialling codes", triggering a diagnostic test and appending codes only to such numbers with the "unknown" tag. Numbers that had codes appended would also of course have their tag changed to match the changed status.

If it is determined that a call is made to the accessed number (21), it is then determined whether the call is successfully connected (23). If the call is not connected, diagnostic number correction (24) may be performed. Diagnostic number correction is a procedure whereby systems will try to reroute a dialled number that does not have a international dialling code using various methods including parsing numbers to see if they match a list of national standard numbers e.g. 01635 or 0779 for the United Kingdom. If the diagnostic number correction is not successful, the accessed number can be tagged with an "error" tag (25).

If however, the call is connected, or the diagnostic number correction is successful, then it is determined whether or not the number has a prefix (26). The prefix of course is the usual approach for using regional dialling codes. If the number has a prefix, then the number is tagged as "prefixed" in the address book (27). If the number does not have a prefix, then it is tagged as "local" in the address book (28). This is merely as an indication that the number is likely to be a local number, and in this embodiment of the invention, further checks will be performed before the local prefix is actually added to the address book.

Once the appropriate tag has been added to the address book (i.e. "unknown", "error", "local" or "prefixed") the application proceeds to a verification process (29). In the verification process the application first checks to see if the tag is a "corrected" tag. This tag indicates that the prefix has been added and verified by the application, and so no further action needs be taken in regard to such a tag.

For all the other tags, the application keeps a tally of one or more parameters relating to the called number, such as the duration of the call, frequency of calls, change to cell location and the like. The application will continue to tally these parameters for each called number until the threshold is met (30). In this way, the "error" and "unknown" tags for example, can be used to identify, trigger and diagnose only those numbers that are wrong.

With the threshold met, it is then determined if the number has a prefix added or not (31). Where the threshold is met and a prefix is not present, the number can be considered to be a local number, and the local regional code associated with the number (32). The tag associated with the number is amended to "corrected" since the checking threshold has been met. Similarly, if the number is tagged as "prefixed", then the validation procedure in effect is a verification that the prefix in the address book is correct and the tag associated with the number is updated to "corrected" (34).

It is to be appreciated that the key aspect of this embodiment of the invention is the verification of numbers being local numbers, and that the verification of existing prefixes is only a preferred feature of the embodiment.

In a further alternative embodiment of the invention, rather than updating the address book at all, the application is configured to maintain a separate database for dialled numbers. This database may be on the mobile terminal or on a network server.

Therefore in this embodiment, upon a number being dialled, the application keeps track of the call connection event monitoring in the database. This database may also be used when the regional code has been verified as correct for a particular number, in that when the particular number is dialled without a regional code, the application checks the database, and if a code has been verified as correct for that particular number, the application adds the code to the dialled number before it is transmitted to the network.

Advantageously, this embodiment of the invention is able to cater for numbers that are dialled directly into the phone and does not require access to the number in the address book in order to operate. It also does not make adjustments to the user's contact information, which is often a user preference. The application in this embodiment of the invention is preferably implemented on a mobile terminal, but may also be implemented on a network server.

For all these embodiments where the application is implemented on the terminal, correction of the dialling code occurs at the terminal before the call is initiated.

This therefore avoids usage of signalling capacity, which would occur if the correction were not made at the terminal.

The embodiments of the invention therefore enable dialling code correction to occur based upon an intelligent application that is able to learn and make informed decisions.

The embodiments of the invention just described are to be taken as illustrative of the invention and not limitative. For instance, the embodiments have been described predominantly in relation to instigating a circuit switched voice call, but other forms of communication are within the scope of the invention, such as an SMS, MMS or establishing a VoIP communication.

Further, whilst the functionality of the application is preferably performed on the mobile terminal, this is not essential to the invention. The application may alternatively be implemented on a network server, preferably in the radio access network component of the network. Having said that, it is preferable for the application to be implemented on the mobile terminal as this minimises the network traffic, usage of radio resources and associated delays.

Further, whilst the present invention has particular application to international dialling codes, it has applicability to other regional codes, such as those sometimes used within countries (e.g. on a state or county based level).

It is also to be appreciated that the expression "friend" in this specification is not intended to be read narrowly, and is intended to cover acquaintances, business contacts including people and companies in general and any other entity to whom a contact number could be allocated.

Claims

CLAIMS: 1. An application for use in a mobile communication network the application configured to: detect a communication being initiated between a mobile terminal and a given number; determine whether a regional code is associated with the given number; and where there is no regional code, monitoring the communication to detect the occurrence of a call connection event to determine whether the given number can be designated with an appropriate regional code.
2. The application of claim 1 wherein the one or more different call connection events that the application is configured to monitor includes one or more of the following: a) a successful communication being established to the given number; b) a duration of a call to the given number exceeding a predetermined minimum leve1 c) a returned communication from the given number being established; d) a duration of a returned call from the given number exceeding a predetermined minimum level.
3. The application of any one preceding claim wherein the application is coiifigured to associate a reference with the given number the reference dependent upon a result of the call connection events monitoring.
4. The application of claim 3 wherein the reference that the application is configured to associate with the given number comprises one or more of the following: a) an error reference indicating a default status or the failure of a call connection event; b) an unknown reference indicating a default status; c) a local reference indicating that the given number is likely to be a local number; d) a prefixed reference indicating that the given number has a regional code; e) a corrected reference indicating that the given number has been designated with the appropriate regional code.
5. The application of claim 3 or 4 wherein the application is configured to store the reference as a tag in an address book of the mobile terminal.
6. The application of any one preceding claim wherein the application is configured to associate a local regional code with the given number in an address book of the mobile terminal, upon determining that the given number can be designated as a local number.
7. The application of any one preceding claim wherein the application is configured for use on a mobile terminal or a network server.
8. The application of any one preceding claim wherein the application is further configured to monitor the communication to detect the occurrence of a call connection event when a regional code is associated with the given number, in order to verify the regional code as correctly designated.
9. In a mobile communication network including a mobile terminal configured to initiate and receive communications using the network, a method of confirming a regional code for a given number to which the mobile terminal seeks to initiate a communication, the method including: detecting a communication being initiated between the mobile terminal and the given number by a mobile terminal; determining whether a regional code is associated with the given number; and where there is no regional code, monitoring at least one different call connection event to determine whether a regional code can be confirmed for the given number.
10. The method of claim 9 wherein the one or more different call connection events that are monitored include one or more of the following: a) a successful communication being established to the given number; b) a duration of a call to the given number exceeding a predetermined minimum level; c) a returned communication from the given number being established; d) a duration of a returned call from the given number exceeding a predetermined minimum level.
11. The method of claim 9 or 10 further including associating a reference with the given number the reference dependent upon a result of the call connection events monitoring.
12. The method of claim 11 wherein the reference associated with the given number is chosen from one or more of the following: a) an error reference indicating a default status or the failure of a call connection event; b) an unknown reference indicating a default status; c) a local reference indicating that the given number is likely to be a local number; d) a prefixed reference indicating that the given number has a regional code; e) a corrected reference indicating that the given number has been designated with the appropriate regional code.
13. The method of claim 11 or 12 further including storing the reference as a tag in an address book of the mobile terminal.
14. The method of any one of claims 9 to 13 further including associating a local regional code with the given number in an address book of the mobile terminal, upon determining that the given number can be designated as a local number.
15. The method of any one of claims 9 to 14 further including monitoring the communication to detect the occurrence of a call connection event when a regional code is associated with the given number, in order to verify the regional code as correctly designated.