IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO CALL HANDLING

摘要

A method for routing a call to a called party who may be located at any one of plural sites which avoids delays in connecting the called party to the received call. When a call is received at a switch, a controller at the switch uses an embedded data base to identify plural sites where the called party may be located from among a multiplicity of sites to which the switch can be connected and causes the switch to initiate parallel connections from the switch to the identified sites. Another method of operating a telephone system in which a called party receives a telephone call from a calling party which is not to be answered and in which the called party is free to use its telephone while continuing to provide a ring signal to the calling party. Upon receipt of one or more rings at the called party's telephone, one or more key strokes are entered at the called party's telephone to provide a refusal signal to the telephone system which is providing a ring signal to the calling party. A further method of routing an incoming telephone call to a called party having plural telephone numbers in which a telephone call for the called party is received at a switching system, and automatically screened to determine where the received call is to be routed among plural devices with different telephone numbers for accessing the called party, where the devices may include a wireless telephone and a pager.