Methods and systems for inbound call control

摘要

An indication of an incoming call may be received at a call control unit communicatively coupled to, and/or resident within, a telephone. The indication may include identification information for the incoming call. It may be determined whether additional information regarding a caller associated with the identification information exists, and if so, a first operation may be performed on the incoming call responsively to the additional information, otherwise, a second operation may be performed on the incoming call responsively to an absence of the additional information. The additional information my include a user-configurable list of desired callers (e.g., a whitelist) and/or undesired callers (e.g., a blacklist). The additional information may also include caller identification information and/or a spam score. The first operation may be blocking the incoming call, forwarding the incoming call to a voice mailbox, transmitting the incoming call to the telephone, enabling the telephone to receive the incoming call, and/or answering the incoming call and then terminating the incoming call. In some embodiments, the first and/or second operations performed on the incoming call is/are user configurable.

主权项

1. A method performed by a call control unit for controlling incoming and outgoing calls at a user's premise, the method comprising:
receiving an indication of an incoming call at a call control unit communicatively coupled to or resident within a telephone, the call control unit being located at the user's premise and positioned between a telecommunication service provider providing the incoming call and the telephone, the indication including identification information for the incoming call; querying, by the call control unit, a server external to a telecommunication service provider providing the call and the telephone to determine whether additional information regarding a caller associated with the identification information is stored within a database communicatively coupled to the server, the database storing additional information associated with unwanted callers, the additional information including a user-configurable list of at least one of desired and undesired callers and being associated with a preferred operation to be performed on a call associated with the additional information, and if so, performing a first operation on the incoming call responsively to the additional information, the first operation corresponding to the preferred operation associated with the additional information, otherwise, performing a second operation on the incoming call responsively to an absence of the additional information; receiving an indication at the call control unit that the incoming call is undesired; and automatically adding the identification information for the undesired incoming call to the user-configurable list of undesired caller.