JPH1094000A - Dial relay system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a dial relay system in which an employee, etc., while he is out, can make a telephone connection to the outside his company through his own portable telephone, etc., with the charge on his company. SOLUTION: A dial repeater 2 that consists of an accepting circuit 21 which accepts a telephone call that is made by an employee a and receives and stores the telephone number of a portable telephone 4, a recall circuit 22 which makes a call by return to the telephone 4, and a call circuit 23 which relays the telephone number of a called person 5 who is dialed to by the employee a who is called out by the recall circuit and connects a telephone call to the called person is installed with a private branch exchange 1, the circuits 22 and 23 are connected to each other, and the telephone call is connected between the telephone 4 and the person 5.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention belongs to the field of a dial relay system, and more particularly to a dial relay system in which a company employee or the like can talk with a called party such as a business partner from his / her telephone while being charged to the company. Things.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the spread of portable telephones, the number of individuals who own portable telephones has increased, and the number of portable telephones carried by companies has also increased. In such a case, in order to reduce the waste of carrying two telephones, one employee of the company must
It is desirable to be able to make personal and business calls on a single mobile phone. However, making both private and corporate calls with a single mobile phone poses a billing problem.
That is, when a company telephone is used to call a business partner or the like using a telephone owned by an individual, charging is not made to the company but to the individual. Conversely, if only a company telephone is carried, a private call may be made at the expense of the company.

In order to solve such a problem, it is conceivable to call a business partner or the like from a personal telephone through a company operator. Therefore, a substitute connection device is provided on the company side, or a third party billing method is used, in which the caller's employee or the like is charged to the company side from a personal mobile phone or a telephone at the office. It would be possible to make a phone call.

[0004]

In the conventional proxy connection system, a proxy connection device 72 is provided between a transmitting telephone 70 and a receiving telephone 74 as disclosed in, for example, JP-A-07-030667. As shown in FIG. 6, the proxy connection device 72 is connected to the subscriber line 71 accommodating the calling telephone 70, while being connected to the called telephone 74 by the proxy line 73. When there is an incoming call from the calling telephone 70 through the subscriber line 71 (first line), the proxy connection device 72 first receives the telephone number of the receiving telephone 74 from the calling telephone 70 through the first line 71, and Hold an incoming call. Then, after the incoming telephone 74 is called using the substitute line (second line) 73, the connection is realized by connecting the first line and the second line.

However, in such a proxy connection system, since the call connection is performed while holding the incoming call of the first line on hold, the subscriber line 71 from the originating telephone 70 to the proxy connection device 72, which is a general exchange connection, is used. That is, there is a problem in that the usage fee of the first line is charged to the user of the calling telephone 70 as the caller.

On the other hand, a conventional third party billing system is disclosed in
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-23358 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 04-051650, a collation memory for third party charging is provided on the originating exchange side, and a call is connected by collation matching. Is transferred as a charge to the user.

However, in this method, since the third-party charging function is realized based on the third-party charging target memory, the caller can access from the area of the originating exchange having the third-party charging target verification memory. Only when a call is made, third party billing becomes possible. Therefore, for calls originating from outside the area of the originating exchange, charging from the originating point to the originating exchange becomes a burden on the originator. Further, a large number of devices, such as a collation memory and a database for incoming call billing provided in the originating exchange, must be installed in the public telephone network. Further, since complicated processing such as updating of a database is required, there is a problem that enormous cost is required to realize such a third party billing function. In addition, the caller has to enter a password when receiving a call connection.

[0008] Therefore, the present invention is intended to provide an easy way for an employee or the like to make a company telephone call from his / her own mobile phone or a telephone at a visit destination in a state in which an employee or the like is charged for the company side in the same manner as when making an outside line call from within the company. It is an object of the present invention to provide a dial relay system capable of performing the following.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a dial relay system according to the first aspect of the present invention accepts an incoming call from outside the premises, and the caller of the telephone dials the call. A reception circuit for receiving and storing a telephone number of a caller, a return circuit for calling back the caller by making a return call to the telephone number stored in the reception circuit via a private branch exchange, and the called call A dial repeater having a calling circuit for relaying the telephone number of the called party to be dialed from the call back circuit and making a telephone connection to the called party via the private branch exchange to the subscriber side of the private branch exchange. The calling party is connected to the called party via the private branch exchange, the return circuit, and the transmission circuit.

In the dial relay system according to the present invention, a caller first makes a call to a reception circuit, and inputs and stores his / her telephone number from his / her telephone in the reception circuit. Once the call is terminated, the caller outside the premises is called by the caller making a telephone connection to the telephone number stored in the reception circuit. The called party is
Dial the called party's phone number from your phone. Then, the telephone number of the called party is relayed to the calling circuit via the call back circuit, and the calling circuit makes a telephone connection to the called party via the private branch exchange. As a result, the call back circuit and the calling circuit form a communication path for relaying dialed numbers to the called party and voice between the calling party and the called party via the private branch exchange.

According to the present invention, a caller such as an employee simply dials a telephone number of a business partner or the like after being called by the call back circuit, as if calling an outside line from within the company. The dial relay service can be received at. At this time, since both the calling party and the called party are called from the private branch exchange by the dial repeater, charging is performed for the subscriber having the private branch exchange instead of the calling party. Accordingly, an employee who is out of the office can make a company phone call from his / her mobile phone while being charged to the company.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a dial relay system for receiving a telephone call received through a first subscriber line and receiving a telephone number of the caller input by the caller of the telephone. A receiving circuit for storing, and a return circuit for making a return call to the telephone number stored in the receiving circuit through the first subscriber line and calling the caller;
An originating circuit for relaying a telephone number of a called party dialed by the called party from the calling circuit and making a telephone connection to the called party through a second subscriber line; And connecting the calling party to the called party via the transmitting circuit. As a result, even if a company does not have a private branch exchange, it has at least two subscriber lines, so that employees etc. can use their personal telephones to make corporate calls while being charged to the company. can do.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration of the dial relay system according to the first embodiment. Company A having a private branch exchange (hereinafter, referred to as PBX) 1 is a subscriber of a public telephone network (hereinafter, referred to as PSTN) 3. On the company A side of the PBX 1, a dial relay device 2 including a reception circuit 21, a return circuit 22, and a transmission circuit 23 is accommodated.

Here, the receiving circuit 2 of the dial relay device 2
1 receives a telephone call from outside the company, that is, from outside the company, and receives and stores the telephone number (dial number) of the caller of this telephone. As shown in FIG. 1, for example, an employee a of Company A who is outside the company dials in a dial relay device 2 of Company A using a personally owned mobile phone 4 by dial-in.
The mobile phone 4 dials the dial number of the mobile phone 4 or a nearby telephone according to the message issued by the reception circuit 21, and the dial number is stored in the reception circuit 21.

Although not shown in FIG. 1, the accepting circuit 21 has storage means for storing dial numbers of the mobile phone 4 and sending means for sending the dial numbers stored here to the recall circuit 22. doing. Here, the storage means
It includes a memory such as a RAM and a flash memory. Also, the sending means is connected to a bus connecting the storage means and the return circuit 22, and a CP for controlling the exchange of data.
The dial number stored in the storage means is transferred to the address assigned to the return circuit 22 as data.

The return circuit 22 makes a return call via the PBX 1 based on the dialed number transferred from the reception circuit 21, and calls the preceding caller, ie, the employee a. Oscillation circuit 2 connected to this return circuit 22
Numeral 3 receives the telephone number of the called party (company B) dialed by the caller (employee a) called by the call back circuit 22 via the call back circuit 22 and relays it to the PBX 1. After the line with the company B is established through the PBX 1, the PBX 1 and the return circuit 22 constitute a communication path for relaying voices and the like between the caller and the called party.

The operation of the dial relay system according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. here,
2 and 3 are a schematic diagram and a flowchart for explaining the operation of the dial relay system according to the present embodiment. In the following description, it is assumed that an employee a of Company A outside the company uses Company's own mobile phone 4 to make a company telephone call to Company B.

First, the employee a of Company A dials the dial-in number assigned to the reception circuit 21 accommodated in the PBX 1 from his / her mobile phone 4 and connects to the reception circuit 21 (step 101). Mobile phone 4 is reception circuit 2
1, the receiving circuit 21 automatically responds,
A dial tone is transmitted (step 102). When the dial tone is transmitted from the reception circuit 21, the employee a
Dials the telephone number (dial number) of his / her mobile phone 4. As a result, the reception circuit 21 receives and stores the dial number of the mobile phone 4, and ends the call with the mobile phone 4 once (step 103).

After the end of the call, the reception circuit 21 transfers the stored dial number to the recall circuit 22 (step 10).
4). The recall circuit 22 that has received the dialed number,
With reference to its own timer (not shown), after a lapse of a predetermined time (for example, 15 seconds), a telephone call is made to the mobile phone 4 via the private branch exchange 1 (step 105). When employee a responds to the call from the call back circuit 22,
This response is sent to the transmission circuit 23 via the return circuit 22. (Step 106). The transmitting circuit 23 receiving the response from the employee a transmits the signal to the PBX 1 (OFF / H).
OOK) (step 107). The dial tone from the PBX 1 is sent from the transmission circuit 23 to the recall circuit 22,
Call back circuit 22 to PBX1, PBX1 to PSTN
The route is followed to the mobile phone 4 (step 108). As a result, the employee a is the called party B
You are ready to call the company.

Employee a dials the desired telephone number (dial number) of company B from mobile phone 4. The dialed number of Company B dialed from the mobile phone 4 is PBX
1. The signal is relayed to the transmission circuit 23 via the return circuit 22 (step 109). Transmission circuit 23 calls company B 5 via PBX1 and PSTN3 (step 1).
10). When Company B responds, the transmitting circuit 23 and B
Company is connected by telephone, and as a result, A
A communication path is formed via the PBX 1 of the company and via the return circuit 22 and the transmission circuit 23.
1).

In the above-described dial relay system, employees a and B
Since the company is called from the call back circuit 22 and the transmission circuit 23 via the private branch exchange 1, employees a and B
The charge for the telephone connection with the company is A, not employee a.
Made to the company. As a result, the employee a can make a call with the company B by paying only the charge when making a call from the mobile phone 4 to the reception circuit 21.

In this embodiment, before the call-back circuit 22 calls the employee a in step 105, it waits for a predetermined time after receiving the transfer of the dial number of the mobile phone of the employee a from the reception circuit 21. It was explained as. However, instead of doing so, step 104
The reception circuit 21 may transfer the dialed number to the recall circuit 22 after a lapse of a predetermined time from the end of the call, and the recall circuit 22 may make a call as soon as the dialed number is received in step 105. Needless to say. In this case, the reception circuit 21 refers to a timer (not shown in FIG. 1).

The above-described dial relay system may be constructed by connecting a personal computer (PC) to a PBX via a modem, although a dedicated dial repeater may be constructed. FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram showing such an embodiment. As shown in FIG.
The PC 24 is a modem, that is, an interface (I /
FBX) is connected to PBX1. Where PC
Reference numeral 24 includes a CPU, a memory, a bus, an I / F, and the like, and realizes the functions of the above-described reception circuit, recall circuit, and transmission circuit by software.

The PC 24 has an external storage device 25 such as a hard disk, an output device 26 such as a printer, and a CR.
A display device 27 such as a T display is connected via an I / F. As a result, it is possible to monitor the state of accessing the PC 24 for dial relay on the CRT 27. In addition, the history of dial relay is recorded in the external storage device 25, and this history is displayed on the CRT 27 or output to the printer 26, whereby it is possible to manage the billing status by dial relay. At this time, the information recorded or displayed may be the dial number of the employee a, that is, the mobile phone of the caller, the dial number of Company B, that is, the dialed number of the called party, the time at which the dial was relayed, the talk time of the dial relay, and the like. . This makes it possible to distinguish whether the call through the dial relay is for a company or a private one.

Further, in order to prevent an unspecified third party from using the company A's dial relay function without permission,
It is also conceivable to perform dial relay only when the caller inputs a correct password. That is, a personal identification number is assigned to a valid user such as an employee in advance, and the personal identification number is registered in the external storage device 25 or the like, while the personal computer 24 functioning as a dial relay device receives the personal identification number input by the employee a via the PBX 1. Is to be compared. In this case, the employee a enters the password before inputting the dial number of the mobile phone 4 in step 103.

However, providing such a collation function requires a trouble of inputting a password. On the other hand, the method of recording the dial relay history described above can also suppress an unauthorized call to some extent. In addition, since it is possible to save the trouble of inputting the personal identification number, it is possible to easily call the company B as if calling an outside line from within the company.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the second embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, a company A having no private branch exchange implements the dial relay system according to the present invention. Here, the company A, which is a subscriber of the PSTN 3, has two subscriber lines 31 and 32, which are connected to the dial repeater 6. Among these, the first subscriber line 31 is connected to a receiving circuit 61 and a call-back circuit 62 of the dial repeater 6 via a switch 64. On the other hand, the second subscriber line 32 is connected to a transmission circuit 63.

The basic operation and procedure of the dial relay system in the present embodiment are the same as those in the first embodiment described above with reference to FIGS. The points different from the first embodiment are that the private branch exchange is not interposed and that the first subscriber line 31 is switched by the switch 64 when the dial number of the mobile phone 4 is input and when the employee a is called. It is in. That is, the dial relay device 6 connects the first subscriber line 31 to the reception circuit 61 by the switch 64 when the employee a calls the reception circuit 61 and inputs the dialed number of his / her mobile phone 4 by the switch 64; Employee a
Is connected to the call-back circuit 62. Note that the switch 64 can be realized by a relay or the like.

When the employee a is called by the call back circuit 62 and makes a telephone connection with the company B, the communication between the company B and the transmission circuit 63 of the dial repeater 6 is connected by the second subscriber line 32. . As a result, a communication path of employee a (mobile phone 4) -subscriber line 31-callback circuit 62-transmitter circuit 63-subscriber line 32-B is formed. At this time, the employees a and B are called from the dial relay device 6 of the company A, and the company A bears the charge for this call. As a result, even if Company A does not have a private branch exchange, it can implement the dial relay system according to the present invention by having two subscriber lines. Employee a receives a charge from company A from company mobile phone 4 in the same manner as making an outside line call from the company.
You can make a phone call to your company,
Eliminates the need to carry one mobile phone.

Although the first and second embodiments have been described on the assumption that the employee a uses the personal mobile phone 4, it is also possible to use a mobile phone instead of the mobile phone 4. Needless to say. In addition, reception circuit 2
Although it has been described that the dial numbers of the mobile phone 4 used by the employee a for the first time are stored in the numbers 1 and 61, the employee a has the different telephone numbers for the reception circuits 21 and 61. Can also be stored. That is, the employee a uses the mobile phone 4 to receive the reception circuits 21 and 61.
By dialing in, and entering the telephone number of a different telephone (not shown in FIGS. 1, 3 and 4) to establish a call back to a telephone other than the mobile telephone 4. It is also possible to make it. Conversely, the receiving circuits 21 and 61 may be accessed from a public telephone or a telephone provided at a visit destination.
Needless to say, it is also possible to make a telephone call with the company B using the mobile phone 4 by making a telephone connection by dial-in and entering the dial number of the own mobile phone 4. Absent.

Further, in the above two embodiments, the dial numbers stored in the receiving circuits 21 and 61 are described as being that the employee a dials from his / her own mobile phone 4. When the telephones 21 and 61 are connected by telephone, the reception circuits 21 and 61 may receive the dial number of the mobile phone 4 from a control base station (not shown) of the PSTN 3 and automatically store the dial number.

[0032]

According to the present invention, not only calls between private branch exchanges and called parties, but also calls between individuals and private branch exchanges are charged to a company or the like. You can easily make a company phone call from your phone. Therefore, it is not necessary to carry a company mobile phone in addition to a personal mobile phone. At this time, callers such as employees
Dialing is as easy as making an outside line call. Further, the dial relay system according to the present invention can be realized without providing any changes to the public telephone network or the private branch exchange only by providing a simple dial relay device in a private branch exchange owned by a subscriber such as a company. Dial relay can be performed at a subscriber level at a lower cost than in the past.

Further, according to the dial relay system of the present invention, even if a subscriber such as a company does not have a private branch exchange, it is charged to the company etc. Employees can make company calls from personal phones.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration of a dial relay system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the operation of the dial relay system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the dial relay system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a dial relay device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration of a dial relay system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a conventional connection proxy method for a communication line.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: Private branch exchange, 2, 6: Dial repeater, 21, 6
1 reception circuit, 22, 62 recall circuit, 23, 63
... Transmission circuit, 24 ... Personal computer, 25 ...
External storage device, 26 output device, 27 display device, 3 ...
Public line network, 31, 32 ... subscriber line, 4 ... mobile phone,
5. Callee, 64 ... Switch.

Claims (2)

[Claims] Claims: 1. Accepting an incoming call from outside the premises,
A reception circuit for receiving and storing the telephone number of the caller input by the caller of the telephone; and making a return call to the telephone number stored in the reception circuit via a private branch exchange to call the caller A call-back circuit, and a calling circuit that relays the telephone number of the called party dialed by the called party from the call-back circuit and makes a telephone connection to the called party via the private branch exchange. A dial relay, wherein a dial relay device is provided on the subscriber side of the private branch exchange, and the calling party is telephone-connected to the called party via the private branch exchange, the return circuit, and the transmission circuit. method. 2. A receiving circuit for receiving a telephone call received through a first subscriber line, receiving and storing a telephone number of the caller input by a caller of the telephone, and storing the telephone number in the receiving circuit. A call back circuit for making a return call to the called telephone number through the first subscriber line to call the caller; and relaying the telephone number of the called party dialed by the called caller from the call back circuit. And a calling circuit for making a telephone connection to the called party through a second subscriber line, and connecting the calling party to the called party via the calling circuit and the calling circuit. Features a dial relay system.