Patents Assigned to AT&T Wireless Services
  • Method and system for audibly announcing an indication of an identity of a sender of a communication
    Patent number: 6570983
    Abstract: A method and system to generate a communications identification announcement including an indication of an identity of an author of an incoming communication is disclosed. In an embodiment the method. Includes receiving a communication having a communication identifier and then searching a database to match the communication identifier to a data or audio file in the database that had been mapped to the communication identifier. If the communication identifier is located, then the data or audio file having the communications identification announcement including the identity of the author of the communication is announced to the contacted party. If the communication identifier is not located, then a previously stored announcement, generated in anticipation of failing to locate the communication identifier, may be broadcast.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2001
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2003
    Assignee: AT&T Wireless Services, Inc.
    Inventors: Joseph A. Speeney, Ted Stine
  • Method and system for remote call forwarding of telephone calls from an IP connection
    Patent number: 6571094
    Abstract: A subscriber to a remote call forwarding feature on a wire-line telephone line associated with a PBX (101) or central office (402), hereinafter, a “user”, can enable that feature by entering a feature code from an IP terminal (112, 412). The user enters a feature code from his/her IP terminal (112, 412), which feature code is received by a remote server (for example, server 110) having access to an IP user directory (113, 413), hereinafter, for example, an active user registry (AUR) database, and forwards necessary information for invoking the feature in a determined manner to a Service Control Point (SCP) (106, 406). The SCP recognizes the feature code as a request to invoke the remote call forwarding feature on the user's wire-line telephone so that calls directed to that wire-line telephone are forwarded to, for example, the user's cellular phone.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 2000
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2003
    Assignee: AT&T Wireless Services, Inc.
    Inventors: Lee Begeja, Jeffrey Joseph Farah, Neil A Ostroff
  • Wireless communication device with call screening
    Patent number: 6567671
    Abstract: A cellular telephone maintains a screening list of calling party numbers, and specifies call handling therefor. A mobile switching center is responsive to selected types of the specified call handling. The call handling can depend on whether the call is local or non-local, which is affected by the location of the cellular telephone. The call handling can also depend on the time at which the call is made. A subscriber updates his or her screening list via personal computer, and transmits via a communication network the updated screening list to a message center which sends the updated screening list to the cellular telephone via wireless communication. A calling party number can be specified as a wildcard.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 1997
    Date of Patent: May 20, 2003
    Assignee: AT&T Wireless Services, Inc.
    Inventor: Umesh J. Amin
  • Method and system for optimizing performance of a mobile communications system
    Publication number: 20030087635
    Abstract: Call data collected from the switch at a Mobile Telephone Switching Office is combined with location information of a mobile unit to generate information reports concerning the electromagnetic coverage of a geographic region. The collection of call data from the switch permits consideration of uplink information in the analysis of system performance. The uplink information reflects performance of specific equipment that is in use by the wireless customer. This uplink information may be combined with downlink and location information to remove from the performance evaluation transient effects associated with, for example, local terrain and other physical impairments.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 2, 2002
    Publication date: May 8, 2003
    Applicant: AT & T Wireless Services, Inc.
    Inventor: John P. Sheffield
  • Prepaid phone service for both wired and wireless telecommunication devices
    Publication number: 20030086548
    Abstract: A system is provided for receiving prepayment of telecommunication services is provided. The system comprises a wireless communication network, a wireline communication network, and a pre-payment server communicating with both the wireless communication network and the wireless communication network. The prepayment server stores a monetary amount associated with the telecommunication time paid for by a subscriber. A measuring module operating on the prepayment server monitors the amount of time the subscriber uses both the wireless communication network and the wireless communication network and decreasing the monetary amount accordingly. The system enables a subscriber to make a single prepayment for telecommunication services, and the amount applies to both the subscriber's wireline or wireless telecommunications devices.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 17, 2002
    Publication date: May 8, 2003
    Applicant: AT&T Wireless Services, Inc.
    Inventor: Roderick Nelson
  • Method for frequency division duplex communications
    Patent number: 6560209
    Abstract: The high quality PCS communications are enabled in environments where adjacent PCS service bands operate with out-of-band harmonics that would otherwise interfere with the system's operation. The highly bandwidth-efficient communications method combines a form of time division duplex (TDD), frequency division duplex (FDD), time division multiple access (TDMA), orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), spatial diversity, and polarization diversity in various unique combinations. The method provides excellent fade resistance. The method enables changing a user's available bandwidth on demand by assigning additional TDMA slots during the user's session.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 1999
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2003
    Assignee: AT&T Wireless Services, Inc.
    Inventors: Siavash Alamouti, Eduardo F. Casas, Michael Hirano, Elliott Hoole, Mary Jesse, David G. Michelson, Patrick Poon, Gregory J. Veintimilla, Hongliang Zhang
  • Roaming authorization system
    Patent number: 6560455
    Abstract: A roaming restriction system permits a wireless carrier or a subscriber to set a profile that identifies a chosen time window within which the subscriber's wireless calls that are originated from one or more selected roaming areas, are not allowed to be completed, while calls that are initiated either from authorized roaming areas or outside the chosen time window are allowed to be completed. The roaming restriction system allows a wireless carrier to either suspend or grant roaming privileges for a given subscriber within one or more location areas, and for a particular time window.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 17, 2002
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2003
    Assignee: AT&T Wireless Services, Inc.
    Inventors: Umesh J. Amin, Michael Redden
  • Method and apparatus to manage a resource
    Publication number: 20030083068
    Abstract: A method includes selecting a registration resource at a first location and assigning the registration resource to a customer at a second location. The registration resource is released at the second location independently of the first location.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 26, 2001
    Publication date: May 1, 2003
    Applicant: AT&T Wireless Services, Inc.
    Inventor: Gregory A. Wong
  • Method and apparatus for remote unit passivation
    Patent number: 6553237
    Abstract: A method and an apparatus provide for controlling a remote unit's requests to access network resources in a wireless communication network. The method and apparatus scale back the frequency with which the remote unit attempts to establish a connection with a base unit, which connection would provide dial tone to a communication device associated with a remote unit. In accordance with the method, with each unsuccessful attempt to establish a connection with the base unit a retry timing interval is extended, thereby throttling back the number of establishment attempts by the remote unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 1998
    Date of Patent: April 22, 2003
    Assignee: AT&T Wireless Services, Inc.
    Inventors: Stephanie H. Cantwell, David J. Nix, David A. Rostowsky, Adrian M. Yip
  • Delay compensation
    Publication number: 20030053488
    Abstract: In a discrete tone system, a base station receives a transmission burst from a remote unit being installed that includes delay compensation pilot tones that are uniformly spread throughout the transmission bandwidth. The arrival time transmission burst is not synchronized with the other remote units transmitting to the base station. The base station measures the phase delay of each tone and calculates the delay of the remote unit from the slope of the line of phase angle versus tone frequency. The base station transmits a signal to the remote unit that includes the magnitude and direction of the delay, which allows the remote unit to adapt the timing of its transmission to be synchronized with the other remote units.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 17, 2002
    Publication date: March 20, 2003
    Applicant: AT&T Wireless Services, Inc.
    Inventor: Elliott Hoole
  • Short messaging method and system for airborne passengers
    Publication number: 20030043811
    Abstract: An air-to-ground telecommunications system allows callers to store messages on an aircraft data server when sufficient air-to-ground communication bandwidth is unavailable for transmitting a call. The system allows aircraft callers to leave voice, fax, e-mail or other data messages. The messages are stored on the aircraft until sufficient bandwidth becomes available for transmission to the ground. Transmitting messages requires shorter air time and more efficient bandwidth usage because messages do not require a high degree of interaction between parties. The messages can also be compressed before transmission for further efficiently using aircraft-to-ground bandwidth.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 2, 2002
    Publication date: March 6, 2003
    Applicant: AT&T Wireless Services, Inc.
    Inventors: Loan Leuca, Wen-Ping Ying
  • Prepaid phone service for both wired and wireless telecommunication devices
    Patent number: 6529593
    Abstract: A system is provided for receiving prepayment of telecommunication services is provided. The system comprises a wireless communication network, a wireline communication network, and a pre-payment server communicating with both the wireless communication network and the wireless communication network. The prepayment server stores a monetary amount associated with the telecommunication time paid for by a subscriber. A measuring module operating on the prepayment server monitors the amount of time the subscriber uses both the wireless communication network and the wireless communication network and decreasing the monetary amount accordingly. The system enables a subscriber to make a single prepayment for telecommunication services, and the amount applies to both the subscriber's wireline or wireless telecommunications devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2000
    Date of Patent: March 4, 2003
    Assignee: AT&T Wireless Services, Inc.
    Inventor: Roderick Nelson
  • Method of notifying a wireless subscriber as to call payment responsibilities
    Patent number: 6529726
    Abstract: A method provides that a subscriber can receive calls through a wireless terminal whereby if the calls originate with one number the called party pays and if the calls originate with another number the calling party pays. Information is transferred to the wireless terminal so that a data field normally used to identify the calling party is used to indicate to the called party who has assumed responsibility for payment of the call.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 19, 1999
    Date of Patent: March 4, 2003
    Assignee: AT&T Wireless Services, Inc.
    Inventor: Jeffrey Rhodes
  • E-mail usage pattern detection
    Patent number: 6507866
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for identifying undesired e-mail messages by receiving e-mail messages, storing fields from the headers of the received e-mail messages and analyzing the stored fields for patterns indicative of undesired e-mail messages. The pattern recognition performed includes counting the number of e-mails received which have the same or similar field content within the headers. This number can be compared to an absolute threshold number, or to the total number of messages in a sample of e-mail messages. The sample may be composed of a predetermined number of received e-mail messages, or may include e-mail messages received during a predetermined time interval. Exceeding thresholds or certain ratios will trigger alarms to alert monitoring functions and update lists of known sources and types of undesired e-mail messages for filtering.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 19, 1999
    Date of Patent: January 14, 2003
    Assignee: AT&T Wireless Services, Inc.
    Inventor: Ronald S. Barchi
  • Near-optimal low-complexity decoding of space-time codes for fixed wireless applications
    Publication number: 20030002605
    Abstract: An improved multi-antenna receiver is realized for detecting signals transmitted by a multi-antenna transmitter by summing signals received at the plurality of receiver antennas after multiplying each by a respective constant. The summed signal is applied to a maximum likelihood detector. The respective constants, &lgr;j, where j is an index designating a particular receiver antenna, are determined by evaluating the largest eigenvalue of the matrix &Lgr;A(&Lgr;*)T, where &Lgr; is a vector containing the values &lgr;j, and A is a matrix containing elements &agr;ij, which is the transfer function between the ith transmitter antenna to the jth receiver antenna. The &agr;ij terms are determined in the receiver in conventional ways.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 3, 2002
    Publication date: January 2, 2003
    Applicant: AT&T Wireless Services, Inc.
    Inventors: Titus Lo, Vahid Tarokh
  • Synchronization of encryption in a wireless communication system
    Publication number: 20030003896
    Abstract: Disclosed embodiments include a method for synchronizing a cryptosystem. In one embodiment, the method uses existing control data that is transmitted as part of a connection establishment process in a wireless communication system. In one embodiment, messages that are normally sent between a base station and a remote unit during the setup of both originating and terminating calls are parsed to detect a particular control message that indicates the start of telephony data transmission. Detection of this message indicates a point at which encryption/decryption can begin, and is used to synchronize the cryptosystem. Synchronizing a cryptosystem involves generating an RC4 state space in a keyed-autokey (“KEK”) encryption system. In one embodiment, Lower Medium Access Channel (“LMAC”) messages are used according to a wireless communication protocol.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 19, 2001
    Publication date: January 2, 2003
    Applicant: AT&T Wireless Services, Inc.
    Inventors: Eric Klingler, Jeffrey Tedeschi
  • Low complexity maximum likelihood detecting of concatenated space codes for wireless applications
    Patent number: 6501803
    Abstract: Good transmission characteristics are achieved in the presence of fading with a transmitter that employs a trellis coder followed by a block coder. Correspondingly, the receiver comprises a Viterbi decoder followed by a block decoder. Advantageously, the block coder and decoder employ time-space diversity coding which, illustratively, employs two transmitter antennas and one receiver antenna.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 5, 1998
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2002
    Assignee: AT&T Wireless Services, Inc.
    Inventors: Siavash Alamouti, Patrick Poon, Vahid Tarokh
  • Delay compensation
    Patent number: 6501771
    Abstract: In a discrete tone system, a base station receives a transmission burst from a remote unit being installed that includes delay compensation pilot tones that are uniformly spread throughout the transmission bandwidth. The arrival time transmission burst is not synchronized with the other remote units transmitting to the base station. The base station measures the phase delay of each tone and calculates the delay of the remote unit from the slope of the line of phase angle versus tone frequency. The base station transmits a signal to the remote unit that includes the magnitude and direction of the delay, which allows the remote unit to adapt the timing of its transmission to be synchronized with the other remote units.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 1999
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2002
    Assignee: AT&T Wireless Services, Inc.
    Inventor: Elliott Hoole
  • Method for controlling channel reselection
    Patent number: 6501951
    Abstract: A method for re-selecting control channels in a mobile station reduces the use of resources by limiting an evaluation of candidate control channels to those channels which satisfy certain criteria and are deemed to be eligible control channels. As a consequence, resources are not spent on attempting to re-select a control channel that is not compatible with the mobile station.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 7, 1999
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2002
    Assignee: AT&T Wireless Services, Inc.
    Inventor: Michael R. Moore
  • Method for automatically programming a wireless telephone with a voice mail system access number
    Patent number: 6498930
    Abstract: A method for automatically programming a wireless telephone with a voice mail system access telephone number is disclosed. When the voice mail system access telephone number is received by the wireless telephone, software within the wireless telephone automatically stores the received voice mail system access telephone number within a wireless telephone memory location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 1999
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2002
    Assignee: AT&T Wireless Services, Inc.
    Inventor: Farzan Mamaghani