WO2008027656A2

WO2008027656A2 - Method and apparatus for call handling

Info

Publication number: WO2008027656A2
Application number: PCT/US2007/073013
Authority: WO
Inventors: Subodh K. Sohi
Original assignee: Motorola, Inc.
Priority date: 2006-09-01
Filing date: 2007-07-09
Publication date: 2008-03-06
Also published as: WO2008027656A3

Abstract

A call handling apparatus comprises a receiver which receives an incoming call and associated call intent data for a plurality of call intents. An action processor (203) determines a plurality of call actions in response to the call intent data and a user call action preference profile. The user call action preference profile can specifically comprise call intent rules specifying specific call actions if associated call intent conditions are met. An action controller (211) then performs the identified call actions.

Description

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CALL HANDLING

Field of the invention

The invention relates to call handling in communication systems and in particular, but not exclusively, to handling of voice calls.

Background of the Invention

Call handling in communication systems is becoming increasingly important as the modern communication needs and services become increasingly flexible and diverse. Specifically, the popularity of call centres providing a variety of customer services and support requires efficient call handling in order to provide an optimal user experience .

However, traditional call handling in for example voice and telephone communication systems is typically cumbersome, inflexible, resource demanding and provides a poor user experience .

For example, in many situations a user may have a number of different requirements or desires which can only be met by making a plurality of calls or by making cumbersome and impractical manual inputs to a complex call handling system. As a specific example, if a customer calls a large computer company in order to obtain support for a computer having memory faults, requiring a software update and for pre-sales support for a peripheral, such as a mouse or a printer, the user may frequently need to interact with three different people or systems (i.e., a hardware support operative, a software support operative and a peripheral sales representative) . In order to do this, the user may either need to perform three separate calls or may need to be manually redirected from one person to another. Furthermore, the user may for each call or redirection have to input a sequence of selections of redirection options in order to be connected to the appropriate person. This is highly unsatisfactory and provides a poor user experience as well as a complicated and limited service.

Hence, an improved call handling system would be advantageous and in particular a system allowing increased flexibility, reduced complexity, improved user experience, facilitated operation/implementation and/or improved performance would be advantageous.

Summary of the Invention

Accordingly, the Invention seeks to preferably mitigate, alleviate or eliminate one or more of the above mentioned disadvantages singly or in any combination.

According to a first aspect of the invention there is provided a call handling apparatus comprising: a receiver for receiving an incoming call and associated call intent data for a plurality of call intents; an action processor for determining a plurality of call actions for the incoming call in response to the call intent data and a user call action preference profile; and a controller for performing the plurality of call actions. The invention may allow improved call handling. A flexible call handling allowing a single call to have multiple call intents can be handled in accordance with the preferences for a user. The invention may allow complex call handling to be achieved by a relatively low complexity system which is easy to operate and manage. The invention may allow an improved user experience for typically both caller and callee and/or may allow additional call handling services or functionality.

The call handling apparatus may be part of a communication unit such as a telephone. The call intent data can be indicative of one or more intentions for the call and/or may reflect a characteristic of the call. The call intent data may be user selected call intent data.

According to an optional feature of the invention, the call intent data comprises keywords identifying the call intents and the action processor is arranged to determine actions by evaluating the keywords in relation to keywords of the user call action preference profile.

This may allow facilitated operation and/or improved performance. In particular, the feature may facilitate a user generating input for the generation of a user call action preference profile and/or may facilitate generation of call intent data by a user originating the call.

According to an optional feature of the invention, the user call action preference profile comprises call action rules identifying at least one call action in response to the call intent data meeting a set of call intent conditions. This may allow facilitated operation and/or improved performance. The conditions may specifically comprise operators to be applied to keywords in order to determine if the condition is met. The operators may include logical operators, such as and/or/xor/not/equals etc defining a number of relations that must be met by the keywords of the call intent data in order for the call action to be performed .

According to an optional feature of the invention, the apparatus further comprises means for transmitting a call intent data protocol to a remote unit, the call intent data protocol specifying required characteristics of the call intent data.

This may facilitate operation and/or provide improved performance. In particular, it may allow an efficient means for ensuring a match between the call intent data generated at the source originating the call and data of the user call action preference profile. The remote unit may be a unit originating the call or may be another intermediary unit. The remote unit may specifically be a centralised server such as a user directory server. The characteristics may for example comprise an indication of a set of keywords from which a caller can select the call intent data. This may in particular allow an efficient approach for ensuring that the call handling apparatus and the call originating unit use compatible keywords .

According to an optional feature of the invention, the call handling apparatus further comprises a user preference profile controller arranged to generate call intent data rules for the user call action preference profile in response to a user input of call intent data conditions and associated call actions.

This may allow an efficient way of a user controlling the call handling performed by the call handling apparatus. The user input could include selecting keywords and relations between keywords. The keywords may for example be selected from a set of keywords which may e.g. be determined in response to a previous usage.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a communication system including a call handling apparatus comprising: a receiver for receiving an incoming call and associated call intent data for a plurality of call intents; an action processor for determining a plurality of call actions for the incoming call in response to the call intent data and a user call action preference profile; and a controller for performing the plurality of call actions.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of call handling in a communication system, the method comprising: receiving an incoming call and associated call intent data for a plurality of call intents; determining a plurality of call actions for the incoming call in response to the call intent data and a user call action preference profile; and performing the plurality of call actions.

These and other aspects, features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from and elucidated with reference to the embodiment (s) described hereinafter. Brief Description of the Drawings

Embodiments of the invention will be described, by way of example only, with reference to the drawings, in which

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a communication system in accordance with some embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates a call handling unit in accordance with some embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a method for generating a call action preference profile in accordance with some embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a method for generating a call action preference profile in accordance with some embodiments of the invention; and

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a method for call handling in accordance with some embodiments of the invention.

Detailed Description of Some Embodiments of the Invention

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a communication system in accordance with some embodiments of the invention.

In the system, a first communication unit 101 originates a call to a second communication unit 103. The first communication unit 101 is coupled to a communication network 105 which for example may include the Internet, a traditional public switched telephone network, a cellular communication network or any other communication system or network capable of supporting voice or data communication.

In the example, the second communication 103 is coupled to a call handling unit 107 which is coupled to the communication network 105. The first communication unit 101 is arranged to generate call intent data for the call and the call handling unit 107 is arranged to handle the call and perform different call actions depending on the call intent data.

In the example, the call handling unit 107 is illustrated separately from the second communication unit 103. This may allow a common call handling unit 107 to be used for several communication units. However, it will be appreciated that in many embodiments the second communication unit 103 and the call handling unit 107 may be integrated and be part of the same unit. For example, the second communication unit 103 may be a telephone device which comprises the call handling functionality of the call handling unit 107.

In the example of FIG. 1, when a user of the first communication unit 101 initiates a call he may manually enter information that indicates multiple intents for the current call. In the example, the user can enter this information by selecting keywords from a set of possible keywords presented to him. The presented keywords may e.g. be presented on a display and may be selected from a shared keyword list (e.g. provided by a directory server as will be described later) . The presented keywords are in the example generated on the basis of past behaviour such as an evaluation of keywords that have been previously selected.

In more detail, in the specific embodiment where the first communication unit 101 is a mobile or fixed telephone, the caller can be presented with a default list of intent keywords as soon has he has finished dialing the telephone number of the second communication unit 103. This list can then be browsed/edited/tagged with multimedia clips in order to provide the intent information.

In some embodiments, the caller may furthermore provide intent information by inputting call intents which are not part of the presented keyword set, for example by providing a spoken or written call intent indication that can be included in the call intent data.

In the example of FIG. 1, the call intent data specifies a plurality of intents for the call.

As a specific example, a caller A may want to call user B of the second communication unit 103 in relation to the issues of "Seamless Mobility", "football match" and "movie plan". Accordingly, A can dial the number of the second communication unit 103 and proceed to specify the call intents. This may for example be achieved by the following steps

1) A speaks the term "seamless mobility" (or writes seamless mobility) . The first communication unit 101 detects this and brings forward a number of associated keywords from which A can select.

2) A can select a keyword related to a football match and/or can attach a picture which is tagged as a football match (e.g. a picture showing a football match venue details etc) ; and

3) A speaks the term "movie" and selects appropriate keywords.

It will be appreciated that there are many different ways in which the call intentions can be specified and that the caller may for example use one or more of audio, video, picture and/or text to indicate the intention. Specifically, for various different user situations/contexts, the user may select different methods and characteristics for the call intent specification.

Also, in some embodiments, the intent specification can be through devices in the proximity of the first communication unit 101 (such as a nearby computer or personal digital assistant) .

The first communication unit 101 then proceeds to generate call intent data which reflects the call intent information provided by the caller. In the example, the call intent information is encoded in a suitable mark-up language and specifically it is encoded using the Web Ontology Language OWL which is a semantic markup language based on a definition of ontologies. Thus, the call intent data is generated in an OWL machine processable format which captures the intent semantics, so that this can be easily interpreted by the call handling unit 107.

Thus, the first communication unit 101 generates call intent data which indicates a plurality of call intents for the originated call. The call intent data is then transmitted to the second communication unit 103. The call handling unit 107 intercepts the call intent data and proceeds to identify and perform call actions depending on the intentions specified by the call intent data. Specifically, the call handling unit 107 evaluates the received call intent data with reference to a call action preference profile for the intended recipient of the call, i.e. in response to preferences determined for the second communication unit 103 or possibly for a specific user if the second communication unit 103 is associated with a plurality of users .

FIG. 2 illustrates the call handling unit 107 in more detail.

The call handling unit 107 comprises a network interface 201 which is coupled to the communication network 105. When the call from the first communication unit 101 is initiated the network interface 201 receives the call intent data. The call intent data is fed to an action processor 203 which is furthermore coupled to a preference processor 205.

The preference processor 205 is arranged to generate and store a user call action preference profile for the second communication unit 103. The call action preference profile comprises data specifying a number of preferred call actions which should be performed for various received call intent data.

In the specific example, the preference processor 205 is coupled to a user input 207 and to a keyword processor 209. The keyword processor 209 generates a set of keywords that may be used to specify the user preferences and the user interface 207 can allow a user to actively and directly specify the call preferences.

The action processor 203 is arranged to compare the received call intent data to the call action preference profile for the second communication unit 103 in order to identify a plurality of call actions that are to be performed for the call. The action processor 203 is coupled to an action controller 211 which then proceeds to execute the identified call actions. Thus, the system allows a plurality of call intents to be specified for a single call and for a plurality of call actions to be performed for that call. This may provide an enhanced call handling service/functionality resulting in a more flexible and enhanced user experience.

A specific example of the call handling that can be achieved by the described system is provided for clarification. In the example, user A (associated with the first communication unit 101) makes a single call to user B (associated with the second communication unit 103) with the following specified call intents:

• Liquid Media

• Seamless sessions • Enterprise Trust

• Movie

User B has previously generated a call action preference profile which includes the following relevant preferences:

• Any call about liquid media should be forwarded to user C and an email should be sent to user B. • All calls related to "seamless mobility" / "seamless sessions" / "adaptive media" should be rescheduled to between 4:00pm - 5:00pm.

• All calls related to "movie" should be rescheduled to 1:00pm and users C, D and E should be informed by SMS

(Short Messaging Service) .

• The default action for any call not matching any preference is to allow the call to be completed (i.e. the call should be connected to the second communication unit 103) and related intent data should be presented to a specified computer (which can be a computer in the proximity of user B) .

Accordingly, the call is processed in the following manner. • As the call intent data specifies the "Liquid Media" intent, the call is forwarded to user C and user A is provided with an email informing him of the call forwarding .

• As the call intent data specifies "Seamless sessions", a calendar event for a call between user A and B is scheduled for 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm (an email may e.g. be generated and transmitted to user A if user A and B are not both served by a common diary management system) . • As the call intent data specifies "movie", a call is rescheduled for 1:00 pm and an SMS is sent to users C, D and E.

In the example of FIG. 1, the call action preference profile comprises a number of relations and conditions between keywords with an associated action for each condition. If the action processor 203 detects that call intent data is received which identifies a set of keywords that matches a relation/condition specified in the call action preference profile, the corresponding action is performed. For many calls, a plurality of conditions can be met resulting in a plurality of actions being performed.

The performed actions can include for example forwarding the incoming call to a voice storage, such as a voicemail specified by the user. Another action is the generation of an alert message to the user, such as for example a generation of an email and/or text (e.g. SMS) message. As another example, a call action may comprise rescheduling the call to another time and/or forwarding the call to another communication unit or user than dialled by the caller.

In some embodiments, the action processor 203 can also be arranged to evaluate the resulting call actions to identify any conflicts between these. For example, the call action preference profile may specify a set of conflict rules that must be met by the identified actions. As an example, a conflict rule may specify that a call can either be forwarded to another user or to voicemail but that a call cannot be both forwarded to another user and to voicemail. It will be appreciated that conflicts may not only be determined based on conflict rules but may alternatively or additionally be determined based on more complex methods and algorithms for determining conflicts.

If the action processor 203 detects a conflict it can proceed to resolve the conflict appropriately, for example, by deleting one of the conflicting actions. The action processor 203 may resolve conflicts based on a priority of different actions (e.g. stored in the call action preference profile) or by obtaining a user input e.g. selecting which of the conflicting actions should be performed .

In the following, a specific example of the generation of the call action preference profile will be described.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a method for generating a call action preference profile.

The method starts in step 301 wherein the service subscription is determined for the user for which the call action preference profile is being generated. The service subscription data can for example include data identifying which services are available for the user to select from for the call actions. Possible services include a voice message service, a voicemail service, a call forwarding service etc.

Step 301 is followed by step 303 wherein a set of call action preferences are defined. In the specific example, this is divided into first generating a set of relations/conditions for the call intent data that must be met for an action followed by a specific selection of this action .

FIG. 4 illustrates step 303 in more detail. In step 401, the preference processor 205 evaluates previous operations including email history, SMS history, call history, diary events etc. and in step 403 this information is used to generate a set of keywords which are likely to be useful for the definition of the call intent condition. The call condition is then followed by a selection of keywords for the condition in step 405 and a set of relations between the keywords in step 407. This is combined in step 409 to generate a call intent data condition for triggering a call action.

Thus, the user can select the call intent keywords from a targeted keyword set and can then apply operators like AND, OR and NOT to form a call intent condition matching the user's preference.

For example, a resulting call intent condition can be as follows :

IF ( (incoming call intent = "Liquid Media.") AND ( (incoming call intent = "seamless mobility") OR (incoming call intent = "seamless session") ) But NOT (incoming call intent =

THEN

In step 411 the method evaluates the service description to identify the possible services that can be used which may depend on the subscription characteristics of the user. Based on the available services the list of possible call actions that can be performed is then generated. Specific examples of actions can for example include a send SMS action, a send email action, a reschedule call action, a forward call action, a send to voicemail action etc.

Step 411 is followed by step 413 wherein various parameters and settings for the call actions can be specified by the user. In addition, the user can select the operators for the different call actions which again may depend on the subscription characteristics of the user.

In step 415 one or more specific call actions are selected for the generated call intent condition. For example, for the previously generated condition, the user may select the call action:

Send SMS to user D AND reschedule call for time interval A

Hence, the following complete preference is generated:

IF ( (incoming call intent = "Liquid Media") AND ( (incoming call intent = "seamless mobility") OR (incoming call intent = "seamless session") ) But NOT (incoming call intent =

THEN

Send SMS to user D AND reschedule call for time interval A

The same approach may be used to generate as many preferences as desired and may thus allow that a plurality of call actions are identified and performed for a single call.

The user may furthermore set a default action if no other call intent conditions are met. For example, the call action preference profile may specify that the call should be connected to the second communication unit 103 if no other condition is met.

Step 303 is followed by step 305 wherein the action processor 203 proceeds to evaluate the defined rules of conditions and actions to identify whether there are any conflicts between these. If so, the conflict is resolved, for example by deleting the rule(s) with the lowest priority or by a user selecting which of the conflicting actions to maintain.

In more detail, as the user can define various preferences using the same or different conditions for the same or different actions, there may be situations where more than one action is specified although the user preference is to have only one action. For example, the user may want a call forwarded to a single destination which depends on the call intent data. Hence, one call intent condition may specify the action of forwarding to one user whereas another call intent condition specifies that the call is forwarded to another destination. If the call intent conditions are overlapping, the call could be forwarded to two destinations in conflict with the user's preference. This conflict can be resolved by a prioritisation of the destinations .

As another example, the user may define the following rule (where If (il) denotes the condition If (incoming call intent data comprises il) and Al, A2 ...refers to the actions) :

Pl: If il then Al P2: If i2 then A2 P3: If i3 then Al AND A3

P4 : If il AND i3 then Al

P5: If i2 AND (NOT i3) then A3

P6: If il AND i2 AND i3 then Al AND A4 P7: If il AND i3 AND i5 AND (NOT i4) then A6

If call intent data is received comprising an indication of the intents il, i2 and i3 a conflict arises as it is not clear which of the rules Pl, P2, P3, P4, and P6 should apply. This may be resolved by the action processor 203 by detecting a conflict when P4 is created. Accordingly, the user can be shown the conflict and can be asked to select one or more from Pl, P2 and P4 for parallel or ordered execution. Alternatively (or additionally) the system may comprise functionality for automatically resolving a conflict without user input.

Step 305 is followed by step 307 wherein the generated rules are combined into the call action preference profile and stored for use by the action processor 203 when receiving call intent data. The call action preference profile can specifically be stored with an identification of the user identity and/or the identity of the second communication unit 103 thereby allowing a plurality of users/communication units to be individually and differently handled by the call handling unit 107.

Thus, when the call handling unit 107 receives a new call it extracts the identified keywords, retrieves the appropriate call action preference profile data and evaluates all the call intent rules using the extracted keywords. The actions for which the rules are met are then forwarded to the call action processor 211 which executes the actions.

It will be appreciated that in some embodiments, the call handling unit 107 can be dedicated to the second communication unit 103 and can comprise only a single call action preference profile applied to all incoming calls. However, in other embodiments the call handling unit 107 may serve a plurality of communication units and/or users and the call action preference profile may comprise a plurality of (sub) call action preference profiles associated with individual communication units and/or users. Thus, when a new call is received, the call handling unit 107 can determine the identity of the user or communication unit to which the call is directed and can extract and use the specific (sub) call action preference profile associated with that identity.

In some embodiments, a user may furthermore specify different preferences for different callers. Thus, the call action preference profile may comprise different preferences for different callers and the call handling unit 107 may determine the identity of an originator of a new call (e.g. using display calling number techniques) and may select a subset of the call action preference profile associated with this identity.

In some embodiments, the communication units comprise functionality for exchanging information relating to the requirements for the call intent data. For example, the call handling unit 107 may communicate a data message to the first communication unit 101 which specifies the call intents that can be selected for a call to the second communication unit 103. This data message can specifically include a list of the keywords that were available to the user when defining the preferences. The caller can then select the call intents based on the same keywords as used for generating the call intent conditions thereby ensuring a more accurate matching and synchronisation between caller and callee data.

In the example of FIG. 1, the communication system furthermore comprises a directory server 109 which is a centralised server allowing communication units to obtain information related to other communication units. In the example, the call handling unit 107 is arranged to transmit the call data requirements to the directory server. Any communication unit desiring to make a call to the second communication unit can consequently first retrieve the call data requirements from the directory server.

It will be appreciated that in most embodiments, a user is also allowed to join with other contextual parameters such as caller ID, caller location etc while defining the intent based preferences which are later used for finding the appropriate call actions.

In the example, the call handling unit 107 furthermore comprises an acknowledgement processor 213 coupled to the action processor 203 and the network interface 201. The acknowledgement processor 213 is provided with an identification of the call actions selected by the action processor 203 and can generate a feedback acknowledgement message which is transmitted to the first communication unit 101. The acknowledgement message comprises an indication of the selected call actions thereby providing the caller with feedback of the call actions that are performed. For example, the acknowledgement message may specify that although the call is not answered the recipient has been informed by email, the call has been rescheduled and another user has been alerted. FIG. 5 illustrates a method of call handling in a communication system in accordance with some embodiments of the invention .

The method initiates in step 501 wherein an incoming call and associated call intent data for a plurality of call intents is received.

Step 501 is followed by step 503 wherein a plurality of call actions is determined in response to the call intent data and a user call action preference profile.

Step 503 is followed by step 505 wherein the plurality of call actions is executed.

It will be appreciated that the above description for clarity has described embodiments of the invention with reference to different functional units and processors. However, it will be apparent that any suitable distribution of functionality between different functional units or processors may be used without detracting from the invention. For example, functionality illustrated to be performed by separate processors or controllers may be performed by the same processor or controllers. Hence, references to specific functional units are only to be seen as references to suitable means for providing the described functionality rather than indicative of a strict logical or physical structure or organization.

The invention can be implemented in any suitable form including hardware, software, firmware or any combination of these. The invention may optionally be implemented at least partly as computer software running on one or more data processors and/or digital signal processors. The elements and components of an embodiment of the invention may be physically, functionally and logically implemented in any suitable way. Indeed the functionality may be implemented in a single unit, in a plurality of units or as part of other functional units. As such, the invention may be implemented in a single unit or may be physically and functionally distributed between different units and processors.

Although the present invention has been described in connection with some embodiments, it is not intended to be limited to the specific form set forth herein. Rather, the scope of the present invention is limited only by the accompanying claims. Additionally, although a feature may appear to be described in connection with particular embodiments, one skilled in the art would recognize that various features of the described embodiments may be combined in accordance with the invention. In the claims, the term comprising does not exclude the presence of other elements or steps.

Furthermore, although individually listed, a plurality of means, elements or method steps may be implemented by e.g. a single unit or processor. Additionally, although individual features may be included in different claims, these may possibly be advantageously combined, and the inclusion in different claims does not imply that a combination of features is not feasible and/or advantageous. Also the inclusion of a feature in one category of claims does not imply a limitation to this category but rather indicates that the feature is equally applicable to other claim categories as appropriate. Furthermore, the order of features in the claims does not imply any specific order in which the features must be worked and in particular the order of individual steps in a method claim does not imply that the steps must be performed in this order. Rather, the steps may be performed in any suitable order.

Claims

1. A call handling apparatus comprising: a receiver for receiving an incoming call and associated call intent data for a plurality of call intents; an action processor for determining a plurality of call actions for the incoming call in response to the call intent data and a user call action preference profile; and a controller for performing the plurality of call actions .

2. The call handling apparatus of claim 1 wherein the call intent data comprises keywords identifying the call intents and the action processor is arranged to determine actions by evaluating the keywords in relation to keywords of the user call action preference profile.

3. The call handling apparatus of claim 1 wherein the user call action preference profile comprises call action rules identifying at least one call action in response to the call intent data meeting a set of call intent conditions .

4. The call handling apparatus of claim 1 further comprising an acknowledgment processor arranged to provide an acknowledgement message to an originator of the incoming call, the acknowledgement message comprising an indication of at least one of the plurality of call actions.

5. The call handling apparatus of claim 1 further comprising means for transmitting a call intent data protocol to a remote unit, the call intent data protocol specifying required characteristics of the call intent data .

6. The call handling apparatus of claim 5 wherein the remote unit is a user directory server.

7. The call handling apparatus of claim 5 wherein the required characteristics of the call intent data comprises a list of keywords from which keywords of the call intent data may be selected.

8. The call handling apparatus of claim 1 wherein the plurality of call actions includes at least one call action selected from the group of: forwarding the incoming call to a voice storage; generating an alert message for a user; sending an email; scheduling the call; forwarding the call; and sending a text message.

9. The call handling apparatus of claim 1 wherein the action processor is arranged to select a subset of the user call action preference profile for the incoming call in response to an identity of an originator of the incoming call.

10. The call handling apparatus of claim 1 wherein the action processor is arranged to select a subset of the user call action preference profile for the incoming call in response to an identity of a recipient for the incoming call.

11. The call handling apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a conflict processor arranged to detect a conflict between call actions of the plurality of call actions .

5

12. The call handling apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a user preference profile controller arranged to generate call intent data rules for the user call action preference profile in response to a user input of call

10 intent data conditions and associated call actions.

13. The call handling apparatus of claim 12 wherein the user preference profile controller is arranged to detect a conflict between call intent data rules.

15

14. The call handling apparatus of claim 13 wherein the user preference profile controller is arranged to resolve conflicts in response to call action priorities for call actions .

20

15. The call handling apparatus of claim 13 wherein the user preference profile controller is arranged to resolve conflicts in response to a user input.

25 16. The call handling apparatus of claim 12 wherein the user preference profile controller is arranged to determine a set of available call actions in response to a service subscription for a user.

30 17. The call handling apparatus of claim 1 wherein the call intent data comprises semantic call intent data.

18. The call handling apparatus of claim 1 wherein the call intent data is by a mark-up language. represented

19. A communication system including a call handling 5 apparatus comprising: a receiver for receiving an incoming call and associated call intent data for a plurality of call intents; an action processor for determining a plurality of 10 call actions for the incoming call in response to the call intent data and a user call action preference profile; and a controller for performing the plurality of call actions .

15 20. A method of call handling in a communication system, the method comprising: receiving an incoming call and associated call intent data for a plurality of call intents; determining a plurality of call actions for the 20 incoming call in response to the call intent data and a user call action preference profile; and performing the plurality of call actions.