WO2002060160A2

WO2002060160A2 - Telecommunications services apparatus

Info

Publication number: WO2002060160A2
Application number: PCT/GB2002/000336
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jeffrey Wilson
Original assignee: Intellprop Limited
Priority date: 2001-01-25
Filing date: 2002-01-25
Publication date: 2002-08-01
Also published as: EP1354467A2; AU2002228170A1; WO2002060160A3; GB0101955D0

Abstract

A user of the system can initially create one or more groups of members in order to be able to send a voice message to the group members. An incoming voice message from an originating caller (10) is stored in a storage means (12) upon selection of a desired group by the user. An alert message, such as a text message, is then sent from a generator (14) to the members (18) of the selected group. Each member (18) can then have access to the stored voice message by making a retrieval call. The retrieval call may also be stored in the storage means (12) for subsequent retrieval by the originating caller (10) and possibly other users.

Description

TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES APPARATUS

The present invention relates to telecommunications services apparatus for use with a telecommunications network allowing communication between users of telecommunications devices such as telephones. Current developments in telephony and mobile telephony in particular offer users an increasingly rich communication environment. There are now many different methods which are used by individuals for communication with each other e.g. text messaging, voice mail, email, fax, audio conferencing and most importantly, voice. The ability to communicate by voice will always remain the cornerstone of electronic communication systems, while the other techniques have their place alongside voice, each providing its own unique advantages.

While trends for unification of these diverse messaging techniques continue, there are still gaps in communication capability. As mobility increases, people are able to be contacted, in more places and at more times than before. This increased contactability causes users to be selective about which calls they will take at any time. It has become common for people to screen the calling line identity (CLI) of incoming calls and to selectively allow certain calls to go to voice mail rather than answering them immediately. This can mean that although people are more contactable it is actually more difficult to get to speak to them. Telephone conferencing is an attractive concept, providing both the immediacy and emotional content of a voice call, while allowing several participants. However this requires all the delegates of the conference to be available at the same time. Because telephone users now have the freedom to choose when they answer their calls it can be difficult to set up a telephone conference. Even with short messaging service (SMS) text invitation to a conference, although the invitation might arrive almost immediately in most cases, busy people often leave their SMS messages to be read later and so they may not realise that an invitation to a voice conference has arrived. Furthermore SMS message delivery normally uses a store and forward mechanism so the message may be delayed at peak times. It is currently possible to send an SMS message to multiple recipients, either by making use of a group definition facility in the SMS service centre which is supported by some networks or, for example, by using SMS distribution lists managed in the user's handset. It is not currently possible to simply send a voice message to multiple recipients although this would often be advantageous. The recipients might be friends or colleagues or members of a shared interest group. According to the present invention there is provided telecommunications services apparatus for use with a telecommunications network allowing communication between users of telecommunications devices, the apparatus comprising: means for creating a group of members by a user, the group of members including a plurality of the users; means for storing an incoming voice message from a user of one of the telecommunications devices upon selection of a group by the user; means for alerting the members of the selected group that the stored voice message is available; and means for allowing the members of the selected group to have access to the stored voice message.

A preferred embodiment of the invention provides a mechanism for sending a voice message to a group of recipients, which can be thought of as a kind of delayed audio conferencing. In turn by replying to the sender and optionally to other parties at the same time, the recipients can carry on a dialogue over time. Whether or not they participate in this dialogue, multiple recipients are able to listen to the messages.

The preferred embodiment makes use of a concept called 'Group' which provides a collection of messaging means for communication with one or more recipients. Amongst these is a means for simply sending a voice message to a group and also a means for setting up and managing the necessary group lists. In the text the term 'group' is taken to mean a body of one or more recipients. The proposed 'Group' service is described whereby telephone users can easily send text messages and voice messages to groups of other telephone users and arrange audio conferences with them. The preferred use of the system is via SMS messages and dial-in services. A proposed syntax for the SMS interface will be described in detail. Text-to-speech is preferably used to play the selected group name to the sender for confirmation purposes.

The ability to easily send a voice message to a pre-defined group can save time and effort and for larger group sizes may make the sending of a message practical while sending the message individually to each member of the group would have been impractical. Getting a group together for a voice conference can be difficult as discussed above. This leads to the concept of time shifted conferencing. By sending a voice message to each party in the group and allowing them to respond in their own time, the effect of a conference can be achieved but spread over a longer period. Discussions can be held on a particular subject thread with each participant responding in his own time, while the entire set of messages and replies can be reviewed by the originator. This concept is available to all phone users. However it is more suited to mobile telephones because they have the facility for text messaging alert. Message Waiting Alert has long been a missing feature of the fixed network. Provision of a flexible means of communicating with groups of people will suit many people's lifestyles. The 14-21 year old sector who have adopted SMS with such vigour will appreciate the additional benefits of 'Group.' Also telephone conferencing, which has suffered always from the difficulty of setting up the conference in traditional implementations, will benefit significantly from integration with the 'Group' concept and the ease of access via SMS.

The use of CLI by the system permits blacklisting to be implemented if required. If any users abuse the system then their CLI can be added to a blacklist thereby preventing their further access to the system. In addition to defining telephone numbers as members of the group it is possible to extend this concept to include e-mail addresses as members of groups. E-mail addresses and telephone numbers can be mixed within the same group and the message will be delivered by the appropriate medium. Voice messages sent by e-mail may be delivered as a WAN file attachment to a standard e-mail.

The 'Group' concept as herein described has a number of specific benefits —

• it would be usable by the general public. It is not restricted to staff of corporate organisations or any other closed user group as would be the case with systems based on traditional PBX voice mail.

• there is no need for any kind of registration, either as a sender or as a recipient. To send a message to a group, the user simply defines the group members by sending an SMS message to a published destination number, and provisioning is achieved automatically using the sender's CLI. There is no requirement for a recipient to be invited to join a group by the network. Recipients simply receive messages from this system as they would receive any other messages. Services where the recipient has to first accept an invitation to be allowed to join a centralised group have the disincentive of this additional step, especially if this step involves call charges.

• each recipient has his own personal mailbox, management of which is entirely under his control. He can delete any message which he receives at any time he chooses. If this were not the case, any unwanted messages (e.g. 'spam' ) which arrived in his mailbox could not be deleted and would interfere with use of the mailbox for wanted messages.

• the system does not require premium call charges in order to operate as a value added service. Operators offering this service will benefit from customer retention due to the service features, and for call revenue which can set be at the operator's standard rates. In some cases message retrieval from mailboxes is free which may increase the attraction of the service.

• web access is not a requirement to make the service work. It is usable entirely from a mobile phone, and is therefore accessible to a wider audience than it would be if web access were required.

• because each user is in control of their own group definitions, there is no problem with sending a message to that group. If the group definition were supplied by the message originator, there would be a problem, in that the recipient would either have to be told the identities of all of the group members which is difficult on a mobile phone, or take the high risk of replying to a group without knowing in advance who the recipients would be.

• selection of a group for sending purposes can be done with ease due to the powerful group naming syntax which allows a single digit to be used to specify one of nine groups. Alternatively the group name may be entered as text. In either case text-to-speech is used to play the group name so that the group can be selected with confidence. • the e-mail facility offers an archiving capability for group messages. E-mail addresses and phone numbers can both be used as contact addresses within group definitions.

Developments of the system may also allow the groups to be managed over the Web by a standard browser. In all cases security is provided by the CLI of the handset. For Web access a uniquely generated personal key is sent by SMS or USSD to the handset. This key has to be typed into the browser in order to obtain access. This ties access to the system to the holder of the SIM card with the CLI in question.

The terminology used herein will now be described:

GROUP

'Group' is the name of the concept which is the subject of the preferred embodiment of this invention. Where this meaning is intended quotation marks are used in this text. A group also has a different specific meaning as follows —

A group is a named collection of contacts (mobile phone numbers and e-mail addresses) and may also contain other groups. A group definition belongs to a user, as identified by a CLI. In the preferred embodiment up to 9 groups may be defined per user. Entries are added and removed using user commands. For the purposes of description the GSM Short Message Service (SMS) is used as the means for implementing the semantics of the user interface to 'Group'. A group will automatically be deleted if it is empty and is not a member of another group. It is also possible to delete a group directly, although this requires a confirmation message to be sent by the user. A group cannot have the same name as a contact. When a message is sent to a group, it will go to each member in the sender's group definition. The system will not automatically tell the recipients who else received the message. It is for users to exchange their group definitions and keep them consistent if they wish to. The system helps by allowing one person's group definition to be distributed as an SMS message to the people in that group. The recipients may edit this group definition if necessary and send it back to the system to create their own definition of the group. A user may choose to add his/her own CLI to a group definition. If this is done, SMS and voice messages sent by the user to this group will also be received by the user. Conference requests will always be received by the user whether or not they are explicitly included in the group definition. Groups defined by a user are personal to that user. The contents of the group definition are not transmitted to any other user. This means that when a recipient replies to a message it is not necessarily possible for him to reply to the same group of people as the originator. He can either reply to the originator alone or he can reply to a group of his own choosing. The reason for defining the system this way is that many people would be averse to replying to a message without knowing the identity of recipients who would receive the reply. It is thought to be more appropriate that each user is in control of his own list.

CONTACT A contact is a telephone phone number or e-mail address. In the preferred embodiment, mobile telephone numbers and email addresses are used, because of current difficulties with text messaging and notification of voice message arrival on fixed networks. A user may have up to 99 distinct contacts. Each contact may be assigned a unique name, or may be left unnamed. In the preferred embodiment, naming rules for contacts are the same as for groups and are described later. The unique phone number or e-mail address associated with a contact is referred to as the contact address. A contact that is missing either a name or a contact address is known as a. partial contact. A contact with both pieces of information is a full contact.

A user can treat a contact as if it were a group. For example an SMS message may be sent to a contact, and a contact can be chosen as the destination for voice messages. A contact will become a group if a second entry is added to it provided that the maximum number of groups is not exceeded.

NAME A name belongs to either a group or a named contact. A group cannot have the same name as a contact. From a syntax perspective a name is an object on which operations can be performed. In the preferred embodiment, names can be up to 24 characters long and must start with a letter. Names can contain letters, digits, spaces and underscores. Spaces are allowed because they trigger automatic word completion on mobile phones with predictive text capability, and also because they assist text-to- speech. Names must not contain '<', '>', '#', '*', or any characters that are used as command abbreviations. Names must not clash with the natural language syntax described.

A user of the preferred system is able to define up to nine groups. The methods of group definition are described later. When the user wishes to send a voice message to a group, he simply dials the group messaging server. In a network deployment this would optionally be accessed by a short code. For example, the user might dial 111 to set up a voice call to the group messaging server. The server would then interact with the caller to receive a group identifier. The group identifier can either be a single key or can be the group name. The system then prompts the user to enter his voice message. On completion of the message recording, the system then stores the voice message and sends an SMS alert to each of the recipients. The alert message also indicates the number that the recipients should dial to retrieve their message. This may also be a short code. Optionally a confirmation could be sent to the originator to indicate the progress of the group message delivery.

When the message is left an entry is created in a database for each of the recipients of the message. As the recipients dial in to retrieve their message, their CLI is looked up in the database to determine the identity of the message to be played. A recipient may have one or more messages waiting to be retrieved, in which case they are played out in a predefined order, for example, first in first out. The database is preferably organised using a hashing technique so that CLIs can be used as the look-up index. The recipient of a message can reply in one of three ways:

1. Telephone back directly to the sender

2. Telephone the voice messaging server in the same way as the originator did and select a group which contains the originator 3. Reply immediately to the same group from within the mail retrieval service. This option is not part of the preferred embodiment because the group definition has been defined as personal to the sender. The recipient has no means for identifying the other group members who would have received the same message. It is possible to devise a scheme whereby the sender's group definitions also are usable by the system for the purpose of sending replies. However it is felt that many people would be averse to sending a reply without knowing the full list of recipients beforehand.

Therefore the sender's group definition would have to be available for viewing by the recipient, which would add considerable complexity.

The present invention will be described further, by way of example only, with reference to preferred embodiments thereof as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a block diagram of the overall system schematic according to the preferred embodiment of the invention;

Figure 2 is a block diagram of the intelligent peripheral (IP) architecture in the system of Figure 1 ;

Figure 3 is a diagram showing the data structures in the preferred embodiment of the invention; and

Figure 4 is a diagram showing the data structures for message retrieval. The preferred embodiment of the Group Messaging System uses a Telsis (RTM) fastiP. This is an intelligent peripheral from the range of service node components manufactured by Telsis Limited. The fastiP stores 'Group' voice messages, as well as performing the management and user provisioning aspects of the service. Alternative embodiments could alternatively use an existing network voice mail system for the storage of messages. This would preferably be achieved by using DDI numbers which permitted voice mail messages to be left directly in a mailbox without first ringing the telephone.

Figure 1 shows the overall system schematic with an originating caller 10 leaving a telephone message on a fast IP 12. An SMS generator 14 responds to the fast IP 12 to generate SMS alert messages to each of the desired recipients over a mobile network 16. One such recipient 18 is shown making a retrieval call to the fast IP 12. The fast IP 12 could be accessed in both cases (namely, originating call and retrieval call) by a short code. As shown in Figure 2, the fastiP 12 comprises an interface to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) over El telephony trunks through which calls are connected via a call control unit 20 from the telephone network, a memory component 22 which is used for storing a working copy of the 'Group' databases and for temporarily storing audio data whilst being recorded to or played from disk, a disk subsystem 24 which stores recorded audio and the 'Group' databases, and a service controller 26.

Figure 3 shows data structures which may be used to perform a hashing function which allows caller records to be looked up using the caller's CLI. In Figure 3, the first ID field is optional, and is only required if someone wishes to define a group or groups. Group definition is required to allow recording of a message for a group.

If a message is left for group 7, this file number is added as a linked list for each. The head of the list is indicated by the 'First file pointer' for this CLI. Figure 4 shows data structures for message retrieval.

SMS INTERFACE TO GROUP

Group list management can be achieved either using the telephone with DTMF control or by using SMS or by using the Web. In the preferred embodiment, groups are managed by using SMS.

SMS COMMAND SYNTAX

The SMS interface uses a single telephone number to which all SMS messages can be sent containing 'Group' commands. The syntax for these commands is as follows:

target-name <command> argument #

Note: Natural language commands do not take this form.

Multiple commands may be sent in a single message, limited only by the 160 character SMS length. The # is a command separator. It is optional at the end of the last command in a message, unless that command is voice message send, in which case the # is required. This is to avoid confusion with natural language commands. Target- name is either a group name or a contact name. Frequently used commands have an alternative abbreviated form where <com and> is replaced by a symbol. The command set is described in the next section. Depending on the command, argument may be a group or contact name, a mobile phone number, an e-mail address or SMS message text. Certain commands allow multiple arguments to be specified. Some commands do not take an argument. Whatever the argument type, it cannot contain a # because this marks the end of a command. Where a phone number is specified as the argument, it may start with the + symbol. All commands are case- insensitive. New-line characters are ignored.

In addition to the short command syntax discussed here the system also accepts certain natural language commands.

SMS COMMANDS

The commands are listed in Table 1. Where multiple command names are given they are treated as synonyms.

When the target-name is a contact, it is treated as a group with one entry (or no entries in the case of a named partial contact).

Command Abbreviation Argument Description

<TA K> optional message text Request a conference involving the sender* and all members of the group or contact identified by the target-name. Each phone number member receives an SMS message containing the number to dial to join the conference, and the optional message text (truncated if necessary to fit in 160 characters). E-mail members receive an e-mail containing the same information. The conference must begin within 24 hours. (Sender does not receive 2 messages if his her CLI has been added to the group.) Error conditions: Target-name not defined.

<VIE > (none) List the immediate members of the group or or <LIST> contact identified by the target-name. User receives a reply (which may be spread over several SMS messages) listing all the members of the group. Entries are separated by newline characters. Nested groups appear as a group name only and come first, followed by full contacts and then partial contacts. hen the target-name is a contact Ms command returns the contact address. Error conditions: Target-name not defined. Argument not required.

<VIEWALL> (none) List the members in the group or contact or identified by the target-name, using contact

<LISTA > addresses. This command operates in the same way as <VIEW> except that nested groups are fully expanded and contact addresses appear instead of contact names. Contacts without contact addresses do not appear. The output of this command is therefore the exact list of destinations used by the send commands. When the target-name is a contact this command returns the contact address. Error conditions: Target-name not defined. Argument not required.

Command | Abbreviation Argument Description

<LISTSEND> (none) Send a copy of the membership list to all or <COPY> members of the group or contact identified by the target-name. This is in the form of an <ADD> command that the recipient can send to the Group service to set up their own definition. The sender does not receive the message unless his/her CLI has been added to the group. The output of this message contains the name of the group being defined, but any nested groups are fully expanded into a flat list of contact addresses. The output may be spread over multiple SMS messages. Note that the system allows sufficient space in each message for the recipient to change the target-name up to a maximum of 24 characters. Error conditions: Target-name not defined. Argument not required,

<DΞLETE> <> (none) Delete the group or contact identified by the target-name. A confirmation request is sent before the deletion takes place. Error conditions: Target-name not defined. Argument not required

<CHANGETO> New name or contact Rename or renumber. This command can be address used to change the name or contact address of a contact, or to rename a group. Note that = is not used as the command abbreviation because it may be confused with "copy" or "create". This command requires user confirmation.

Error conditions:

Target-name not defined.

New name invalid.

Cannot change the contact address of a group.

NOTES ON SMS COIVIMANDS List All Names

If the <VIE > command (abbreviation '?') is used without a target name the user receives a reply (which may be spread over several SMS messages) containing a list of all the user's defined group and contact names. Groups appear first, followed by full contacts, followed by named partial contacts.

Error condition: No names defined. Replies and Confirmations

A command reply is sent to the user if an error condition occurs or if the command requires confirmation. A reply is also sent if the command generates output, as with the <VIE > command. If a message containing multiple commands is submitted to the system, the replies to each command are sent in separate SMS messages.

Confirmation is needed before a <DELETE> command can be executed. The user must reply to the confirmation request with an SMS containing 'yes' or 'no' (or an acceptable synonym such as 'y' or 'n') before the command is executed. A timeout of 24 hours will apply, after which the command will be ignored. If the next SMS that the user sends to the system is another command, then the <DELETE> command is ignored.

If a <DELETE> command is followed in the same message by other commands, these are only executed if a 'yes' reply is sent confirming the delete within the timeout period. Confirmation messages may be disabled by an administrator via a configuration setting.

Use of Names

Group names appear in the reply to the <VIE > command, which lists the immediate members of a group. This reply is sent to the user who submitted the command. The system never inserts group names in messages sent to group members. Names belong to the person who has defined them, not to the group. (The single exception to this is the <LISTSEND> command. The message that this generates contains the name of the group being defined).

Current Name

The voice message send command sets the current name (contact or group) in order to prime the dial-in Send Service. If multiple commands are used in an SMS message or further messages are sent before the Send Service is called, the current name is be the one specified in the latest successful voice message send command. Note that commands other than voice message send do not change the current name. This is because any implicit change of the current name may confuse the user.

Nested Groups

When Group B is added to Group A, the software checks _that Group A is not already directly or indirectly referred to by Group B. This is a circular reference and is not allower.

EXAMPLES

10 Where a command generates a message this is shown indented in the Actions column.

SMS Message Actions

FOCϋS*07800623458*07900552819 Create a group called FOCUS and add two phone numbers to it as new partial contacts. The * is used here because it is easy to enter in number mode. + or . would have been acceptable instead of *.

FOCUS. Wei come to the focus Send a message to each member of the FOCUS group. group ! Welcome to the focus group!

TIM*07600564956# Define five phone number contacts. Note that spaces can be used in

MARY*07700735285# names.

FRED*07800456543#

JO BLOGGS*07400678265#

DIVING*07500665320

DIVING*TIM*MARY*A AN Convert the DIVING .contact to a group containing the partial contact 07500665320. Create a partial contact called ALAN. Add TIM, MARY and ALAN to the DrVTNG group.

JO*07400678265 Create a group called JO containing the contact JO BLOGGS (defined above and identified here by contact address). If JO BLOGGS is later deleted, JO is also deleted because it is empty and unreferenced.

DIVING ! Can we discuss the Invite the members of the DIVING group to join a conference: arrangements for Saturday? Group conference on 01489486691 Can we discuss the arrangements for Saturday?

DIVING# Make DIVING the current name in preparation for recording a voice message for it. (Section 0)

To leave a voice message for DIVING dial 4747.

FOCUS*TIM Add TIM to the FOCUS group.

DIVING-TIM# Remove TIM from DIYING, and add FRED to FOCUS. FOCUS* RED

MY PC*fred(5)jnycorapany.co.uk Define an e-mail address contact.

MY PC? View the definition of the MY PC contact:

MY PC contains : fred@mycompanv. co ,uk

SMS Message Actions

Y Confirm the rename.

MARY% 07600665438 Change the contact address for MARY from 07700735285 to 07600665438. This is automatically reflected in the SCUBA group, of which MARY is a member.

Change MARY from 07700735285 to 07600665438, are you sure? (Y/N)

YES Confirm the rename.

Distribute the definition of the FOCUS group to the members of the

FOCUS > group. The only name used is that of the FOCUS group itself.

FOCUS*07800623458*07900552819*07600564956

07800456543*fred@.mvcompanv.co.uk:

List the defined names. Groups appear first, followed by named contacts.

Groups :

FOCUS

SCUBA O

Contacts :

TIM

MARY

FRED

JOE BLOGGS

ALAN

MY PC

NATURAL LANGUAGE SYNTAX

Users are also able to enter commands in plain English. Example natural language commands are:

ADD 01489885877 TO FOCUS

CONFERENCE WITH FOCUS

CREATE THE TOP TEAM CONTAINING MANAGERS, TERRY, MIKE, STEVE,

ROB, DAVID

TO FOCUS Welcome to the Focus Group!

RENAME FOCUS AS THE FOCUS GROUP

LIST THE FOCUS GROUP

MY NAME is JACK (Creates a contact called JACK with the user's own CLI)

It is only possible to enter one such command per SMS message (no hash separator). Natural language messages are identifiable because they do not contain command abbreviation characters. NATURAL LANGUAGE SYNTAX PREFERRED DEFINITION

Symbol Meaning Examples

{ name } Group or contact name. FOCUS

• May contain letters, digits, FRED SMITH THE TOP TEAM spaces and underscores

• Must start with a letter

• 24 characters max

{ contactaddress } Mobile phone number or e-mail 078006347281 address +4478006347281 (07700) 326789

• Phone numbers may contain fred-smith@telsis.co.υk digits, spaces and pairs of parentheses. They may include a leading +. Spaces and parentheses are not stored.

• E-mail addresses may contain letters, digits, underscores, full stops and hyphens. They must contain exactly one @ symbol.

{ item} Name, phone number or e-mail FOCUS address 078006347281 fred~sιmth@tclsis.co.uk

{list } Comma separated list of names, FOCUS phone numbers and e-mail 078006347281

FRED, , DAVID, SARAH addresses. STEVE, j smithΘtelsis . co . uk,

• Empty items and whitespace 07800132432 next to commas are ignored. 07800678173*07700687672*073006

• The following characters may 76562

TIM+MARY+ALAN be used instead of comma: *

+

{message } Any text except # Can we discuss the plan for

• May include newline Saturday? characters.

• Occurs at end of command (to minimise content restrictions)

Add to Group or Contact

ADD TO {name} , {list} ADD {list} TO {name} INCLUDE {list} IN {name} {name} ADD {list} Create Group or Contact

Note: These are only allowed if the name is not currently defined

CREATE {name} CONTAINING {list} CREATE {name} WITH {list} CREATE {name} AS {list} MAKE {name} CONTAINING {list} MAKE {name} WITH {list} MAKE {name} AS {list} DEFINE {name} AS {list} {name} IS {list}

Create User's Own Contact Name

I AM {NAME} MY NAME IS {name}

Remove from Group or Contact

FROM {name} REMOVE {item} REMOVE {item} FROM {name} SUBTRACT {item} FROM {name} EXCLUDE {item} FROM {name}

Send a Text Message

SEND {name} , {message} SEND {name} TEXT {message}

SEND TO {name}, {message}

SEND TO {name} TEXT {message}

TEXT {name} , {message}

TEXT TO {name}, {message} TEXT {name} WITH {message}

{name} SEND {message}

{name} TEXT {message}

Send a Voice Message VOICE {name}

VOICE TO {name} VOICE MESSAGE {name} VOICE MESSAGE TO {name} CURRENT {name} CURRENT NAME {name}

Arrange a Conference

CONFERENCE {name}

CONFERENCE {name} , {message}

CONFERENCE {name} SEND {message} CONFERENCE {name} TEXT {message}

CONFERENCE WITH {name}

CONFERENCE WITH {name} , {message}

CONFERENCE WITH {name} SEND {message}

CONFERENCE WITH {name} TEXT {message} TALK {name}

TALK {name} , {message}

TALK {name} SEND {message}

TALK {name} TEXT {message}

TALK TO {name} TALK TO {name}, {message}

TALK TO {name} SEND {message}

TALK TO {name} TEXT {message}

View a Group Definition VIEW {name}

VIEW MEMBERS {name}

VIEW MEMBERS IN {name}

VIEW MEMBERS OF {name}

LIST {name} LIST MEMBERS {name}

LIST MEMBERS IN {name}

LIST MEMBERS OF {name}

ViewAll VIEW ALL {name}

VIEW ALL MEMBERS {name} VIEW ALL MEMBERS IN {name} VIEW ALL MEMBERS OF {name} LIST ALL {name} LIST ALL MEMBERS {name} LIST ALL MEMBERS IN {name} LIST ALL MEMBERS OF {name}

Distribute a Group Definition

DISTRIBUTE {name}

Delete a Group or Contact

DELETE {name}

Renumber or Rename a Group or Contact

CHANGE {name} TO {item} REDEFINE {name} AS {item} RENUMBER {name} TO {item} RENUMBER {name} AS {item} RENAME {name} TO {item} RENAME {name} AS {item}

Confirmation and Help Messages

Confirmation messages ("yes", "no", "y" and "n") and help messages are related to natural language commands because they do not contain command abbreviation characters, and must appear alone in an SMS message. Help is available by sending the message "help" to the 'Group' service. The reply is a menu listing numbered help topics. The user can then send a message containing the required topic number, and the system will send back the relevant topic. It is also possible to send the help topic name (as it appears in the help menu) instead.

The preferred top-level help menu is —

Group Help :

1 Introduction

2 Store contacts

3 Create groups 4 Send text 5 Send voice

6 Conference

7 View groups

8 Summary 9 More

Send choice 1-9

Voice Services

The dial-in interface for Group comprises the two services listed below.

Memorable numbers are used, such as those indicated. In addition a set of dial-in numbers are allocated for audio conferencing.

Send Service (4747) Collect Service (4141)

The CLI is used to identify the caller and verify that he/she is a user of Group. All calls must therefore be made from the user's mobile phone. If the user has created a contact with their own CLI, and the contact name is in the text-to-speech database, the service begins with a personalised greeting. Help is available in both services by pressing *.

SEND SERVICE

The Send Service allows the user to record a voice message for a group or contact. Text-to-speech is used to read out the name of the recipient, providing the user with essential reassurance about the message destination.

The voice message is normally sent to the group or contact identified by the current name, wliich is set by sending the system an SMS message containing the name followed by #. As the delivery of SMS messages can sometimes be unreliable, the Send Service also allows a group or phone number to be specified directly.

When the current name is set the system responds with an SMS message such as:

To leave a voice message for THE TOP TEAM dial 4747.

The Send Service allows the user to choose three types of message destination, as shown in Table 2. The "current name" option is only available if a current name has been set. In the "any group" option tlie single digit number used to identify the group is a system-selected group ID, which remains the same throughout a group's lifetime. This allows a user familiar with the system to omit the SMS command and just dial the Send Service and enter the group ID immediately. The final option accepts any mobile phone number. It is not restricted to contacts that have been set up using SMS commands.

Table 2 - Voice Message Destinations

When the destination has been chosen the user is prompted to leave the message after a tone. The recording is terminated by the caller hanging up. When message recording is complete, the contact, or each member of the group, is sent an SMS notification giving the number of the Collect Service .

Example audio for the Send Service is given below.

COLLECT SERVICE

When a voice message is left using the Send Service, each recipient receives the following SMS notification: Group voice message received from 07800748352. Please call

4141.

When the recipients call this service, they are informed how many messages they have, and the messages are played back in chronological order, after which the service terminates. Following each message the CLI of the sender is read out and the caller can choose to either keep the message or delete it. The system retains the most recent 25 messages. When a message is 1 week old it is deleted.

Example audio:

BEHAVIOUR OF CONTACTSAND GROUPS

From the system's point of view, a contact is a name that has either never been assigned to (but exists because it has been added to a group), or has only ever had a single contact address assigned to it. If either a name or a second contact address is added to a contact it permanently becomes a group. It will remain a group even if its size is subsequently reduced to 1 or 0. This approach of allowing contacts to turn into groups avoids the user having to declare in advance whether a name with one contact address assigned to it, is going to be a contact or a group.

A partial contact is a contact that is missing either a name or a contact address.

Such a contact only exists as long as it is a member of a group. Once the group is deleted or the contact is removed from it, the contact will cease to exist. Similarly an empty group will be deleted if it is not contained in any other group. The principle in both cases is that a name is deleted if it is empty and unreferenced.

A partial contact can be converted to a full contact by supplying the missing information in an <ADD> command. Conversely a full contact can become a partial contact by removing the contact address using the <REMOVE> command.

NameAdd Number

SARAH<ADD>07600887354# _or SARAH+07600887354# Or SARAH, 07600887354# or SARAH*07600887354#

The actions resulting from these equivalent commands are described below.

Name Add Name

FOCUS<ADD>FRED# or FOCUS+FRED# or FOCUS, FRED# or FOCUS*FRED#

DATA STRUCTURES

For each group the system holds the name and a bit-field indicating which groups the given group directly contains. If the name field is empty then the ID slot is not used. In Table 3 THE TOP TEAM contains MANAGERS.

Table 3 - Group Data Structure

24 bytes 2 bytes

For each contact the system holds the name, the contact address and a bit-field indicating which groups the contact is directly contained in. If the name field is empty then the ID slot is not used. In Table 4, JACK, FRED and RICHARD are direct members of MANAGERS. Also TERRY and MIKE are direct members of THE TOP TEAM.

Table 4 - Contact Data Structure

24 bytes 40 bytes 2 bytes

The contact address field is 40 bytes wide to accommodate e-mail addresses of up to 40 characters. Glossary

Claims

1. Telecommunications services apparatus for use with a telecommunications network allowing communication between users of telecommunications devices, the apparatus comprising: means for creating a group of members by a user, the group of members including a plurality of the users; means for storing an incoming voice message from a user of one of the telecommunications devices upon selection of a group by the user; means for alerting the members of the selected group that the stored voice message is available; and means for allowing the members of the selected group to have access to the stored voice message.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storing means is operable to store the voice message in voice storage locations associated with respective members of the selected group.

3. Apparatus according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the storing means is operable to store a subsequent voice message from a group member allowed access to the original stored voice message.

4. Apparatus according to claim 1, claim 2 or claim 3, wherein the telecommunications devices are telephones.

5. Apparatus according to claim 4, wherein at least some of the telephones are mobile telephones.

6. Apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the alerting means is operable to send alerts in text message form.

7. Apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the text messages are sent by the short messaging service (SMS).

8. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the alerting means is additionally or alternatively operable to send alerts by e-mail.

9. Apparatus according to claim 4, or any one of claims 5 to 8 when dependent on claim 4, wherein the means for allowing access to the stored messages is responsive to the calling line identity (CLI) of the member's telephone.

10. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein groups created by a user are each associated with a single digit telephone number, and the selection of the required group by the user can be made by input of the respective single digit number.

11. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, including means for reading back the selected group to the user.

12. Apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the means for reading back comprises a text-to-speech converter.

13. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, including means for blocking access to a user identified as being on a blacklist.