WO2006131680A2

WO2006131680A2 - Method for setting up a communication from a mobile telephone

Info

Publication number: WO2006131680A2
Application number: PCT/FR2006/050536
Authority: WO
Inventors: Hugues Ferreboeuf; Jean-François GRENON; Toufic Mobarak
Original assignee: Inter-Mobile
Priority date: 2005-06-09
Filing date: 2006-06-08
Publication date: 2006-12-14
Also published as: FR2887109A1; CN101218816A; RU2008100052A; RU2387091C2; WO2006131680A3; FR2887109B1; EP1889465A2; BRPI0611899A2

Abstract

In order to minimize communication costs, the invention provides an automatic analysis (102-107) of the number input by a user. The result of said analysis is the selection of a strategy (109, 111, 113) for setting up a communication promoting local communications and communications via fixed telephone networks. If the communication cannot be made totally local, then the invention makes use of a third party device causing the international communications to be routed via at least one fixed telephone network.

Description

Method for establishing a communication from a mobile phone

The present invention relates to a method for establishing a communication from a mobile phone. The field of the invention is that of mobile telephony, and more particularly that of international communications made from a mobile phone. The object of the invention is to allow a user of a mobile phone to optimize the use of his phone in terms of the cost of communication without changing his usage habits. In the state of the art the mode of operation of the communications from abroad is such that it brings an additional cost borne by the user. Here is meant by calling a telephony network, or from a telephony network, which is not the one to which the SIM card that the mobile phone uses corresponds. These calls are also called inter-operator telephony calls. The location of a mobile phone is here the telephony network to which the phone is connected. The network then corresponds to an operator acting in an area corresponding most of the time to a country. Typical examples of communications to or from abroad are: - a user subscribed to a French operator who calls a user located at the time of communication in a country other than France;

- a user subscribed to a French operator who calls from a country other than France. These are the most common examples. In these examples the words "French" and "France" can of course be replaced to designate another country: Germany, Belgium, Morocco, Japan, China, United States, .... The list is not exhaustive. In practice such communications are excessively expensive and often charged to both the appellant and the called party.

In the state of the art there are solutions to reduce these costs but they require the user to change his habits of use of his terminal. Most often these solutions require the user to enter two phone numbers corresponding for the first to a service provider, for the second to the correspondent he wishes to join and also frequently a code identifying the user The service provider is then responsible for matching the user and his correspondent. In the worst case the user must enter a third number in addition to the two already mentioned, this third number being the one on which he wishes to be matched with his correspondent.

These solutions are particularly painful and discourage the majority of potential users.

In the state of the art, document US 5 987 112 is also known describing an international calling procedure for fixed telephony apparatus. This document teaches to connect a fixed telephone to a foreign recipient by implementing 3 intermediate devices of which at least 2 are able to connect two communications. One of these two devices being directly connected to the fixed telephone. This implementation is not feasible in mobile telephony because it is difficult to maintain a permanent communication to a fixed device from a mobile phone. Moreover the definition of an international call is fixed in the document US 5 987 112, since the telephone is fixed. While in the case of mobile telephony it evolves with mobile phone movements. The teaching of US 5 987 112 is therefore not transposable to mobile telephony.

In the invention, these problems are solved by automatically performing an automatic analysis of the telephone number of the correspondent entered by the user to determine the best call procedure according to the location of the mobile phone of the user. The analysis consists of the telephone number entered and the capabilities of the mobile phone to determine an appeal procedure from:

- standard call;

- call from a local access point; or - connection to a gateway.

The procedure once determined is implemented automatically by the mobile phone.

The subject of the invention is therefore a method for setting up a communication from a mobile telephone connected to a mobile telephone network in which: - a user of the mobile phone enters a number to call,

after validation of the number entered, the mobile phone makes a call establishment request, the method being characterized in that: the mobile telephone is localized,

the mobile phone analyzes the number to be called before the call establishment request to determine a call strategy according to the number to be called and its location, the possible strategies being among the set formed of standard call and call via an intermediary device able to connect two calls,

- The mobile phone makes the call establishment request based on the result of the analysis.

Advantageously, the invention is also characterized in that for the analysis: the telephone determines whether the communication to be established is local or international:

- if it is a local call, then the attempt to establish communication is performed by a normal mode corresponding to the operation of the mobile phone in the absence of the invention

- if it is an international call, if the phone is capable of making a local call and the phone knows an identifier of a local access point, then the phone establishes a local call to the point d access itself capable of establishing a fixed communication to the device corresponding to the number entered,

- otherwise the phone does the communication normally. Advantageously, the invention is also characterized in that for analysis:

- the phone determines whether the communication to be established is local or international:

- If it is a local call then the attempt to establish communication is performed by a normal mode corresponding to the operation of the mobile phone in the absence of the invention, - If it is a question of an international communication: - If the phone is able to make a local call and the phone knows an identifier of a local access point, then the phone establishes a local call to the access point itself able to establish a fixed call to the device corresponding to the number entered,

- Otherwise the phone sends a connection message to a gateway, said connection message comprising at least one identifier of the mobile phone and the number entered, said gateway being able to establish a communication between the mobile phone and the device corresponding to the number entered via two fixed calls.

Advantageously, the invention is also characterized in that the connection message is an SMS type electronic message or GPRS data packet. Advantageously, the invention is also characterized in that a communication is also considered local if the mobile phone is able to make it local by a connection to a local mobile telephone network.

Advantageously, the invention is also characterized in that the telephone number is entered via a list of contacts presented by the telephone in the form of an electronic address book.

Advantageously, the invention is also characterized in that the contact list is produced from a contact memory of the mobile phone. Advantageously, the invention is also characterized in that the mobile telephone associates a location of the mobile telephone with an access point number.

The invention will be better understood on reading the description which follows and on examining the figures which accompany it. These are presented as an indication and in no way limitative of the invention. The figures show:

- Figure 1: an illustration of steps of the method according to the invention.

- Figure 2: an illustration of a device implementing the method according to the invention.

- Figure 3 - 5: illustrations of scenarios of communication facilities according to the method according to the invention. Figure 1 shows steps of the method according to the invention implemented by a mobile terminal. A mobile terminal is, for example, a mobile phone connected to a mobile telephone network. The invention is implemented indifferently on any type of mobile network whether it is a second generation network, second generation and a half, third generation, or a future generation. Similarly, a mobile terminal is also a personal assistant, and more generally any mobile device capable of establishing a communication via a mobile telephone network. The steps of the method according to the invention are implemented by mobile terminal devices, access points or gateways. In practice when an action is taken to a device this action is performed by a microprocessor of the device controlled by instruction codes stored in a program memory of the device. FIG. 2 shows elements of a mobile terminal, a mobile telephone in the description, able to implement the method according to the invention. FIG. 2 shows a mobile telephone 201 comprising a microprocessor 202, a contact memory 203, a microcircuit card 204, GSM circuits 205, a screen 206, a keyboard 207 and a program memory 208. The elements 202 to 208 are interconnected by a bus 209. The circuits 205 are connected to an antenna 209 making it possible to establish a radio connection 210 with a base station 211 of a mobile telephone network 212. In the invention a location is either a country or a mobile operator identifier. Such a location is obtained when the telephone connects to a mobile telephone network, the telephone and the network to which it is connected mutually identifying.

The telephone 201 also comprises, in a variant, a memory 213 associating at least one location and an access point identifier. In practice, the memory 213 associates an access point identifier with several locations, each location being associated with an access point identifier. The memory 213 is connected to the bus 209.

The memory 203, which may correspond to a component of the telephone 101, or to a component of the microcircuit card 204, associates identifiers of the MSISDN type with person names. The memory 203 therefore allows register a list of contacts that can be used by an application of type address book.

The microcircuit card 204 is connected to the bus 209 via a not shown microcircuit card reader. The card 204 is therefore a removable element and is therefore not an internal component of the telephone 201.

The memory 208 comprises several zones, each zone comprising instruction codes corresponding to a function implemented by the telephone 201. In the context of the invention the memory 208 comprises at least the following zones: a zone 208a comprising instruction codes for the production and display of a list of numbers / contacts helping to enter the number of a correspondent;

an area 208b comprising instruction codes for modifying a telephone number entered according to the result of an analysis;

a zone 208c comprising instruction codes for producing a location of the telephone 201, this location being used during an analysis of a number entered;

a zone 208d comprising instruction codes for the analysis of a number entered by a user of the telephone 201 in order to determine the best call strategy, and to implement this best strategy; and

a zone 208e comprising instruction codes for producing and releasing a connection message. In particular, the memory area 208e includes an identifier idP of a gateway to which the product message is to be sent. Such idP identifier is either a MSISDN type number, the connection message being then of short message type (SMS) or multimedia message (MMS). That is, if the telephone 101 has GPRS capabilities or equivalent in terms of connection to a data network, this identifier idP is of type Internet address in which case the connection message is of a type of a data packet corresponding to a protocol usable on an Internet network. Among these protocols is cited in a non-exhaustive way: TCP / IP, FTP, UDP and HTTP.

FIG. 1 shows a preliminary step 101 of entering a correspondent identifier by a user of the telephone 201. Correspondent is, in the field of mobile telephony, a telephone number also known by the name MSISDN number (Mobile Station International ISDN Number, for ISDN international mobile terminal number). There are at least two ways to enter a correspondent identifier.

Either the user of the telephone 101 enters it and validates it directly via the keyboard 207. Either the user uses a corresponding electronic calendar application, in our example with the instruction codes of the zone 208a. In practice, such an application reads the contents of the memory 203 to present it, via the screen 206, to the user of the telephone 201. The user of the telephone 201 can then select a name from the list of names which is presented. Once a name has been selected, the user validates the selection, which has the effect of selecting the MSISDN type identifier associated with the name by the memory 203. The user has thus well entered a correspondent identifier.

In a variant of the invention, the contents of the memory 203 are loaded only once at the first launch of the electronic organizer application in a zone of a random access memory of the telephone. It is thus faster to access it again. Knowing the identifier entered, the phone 201 goes from step 101 to a step 102 which is the first step of the analysis of the identifier entered hereinafter designated as the number.

In step 102 the phone determines whether the number is a local identifier. For this two conditions must be met: - be a number corresponding to a resident of the country in which the phone 201 is located, and

- that the phone 201 is currently connected to a mobile network of an operator offering local calls in the country in which the phone 201 is located. More precisely, the active SIM card must correspond to an operator offering local calls in the country in which the telephone 201 is located. In other words, it is necessary that the location of the phone corresponds to the content of the active SIM card, that is to say that the operator to which the user of the phone 201 is the one to which the telephone 201 is connected. The location of the phone is therefore realized at step 102 either by a request to the network to which the telephone 201 is connected, or by a reading of a location memory of the telephone 201 in which this information is stored. In the latter case, this location memory is updated at least each connection of the telephone 101 to a mobile telephone network.

In the local invention is opposed to international. In the still international invention stands for inter-operator, and more particularly inter-mobile operator.

If these conditions are fulfilled, then the telephone 201 goes to a step 103 of establishing a normal call, that is to say a local call via the local operator to which the terminal 201 is connected.

Otherwise the phone 201 goes to a step 104 of determining the capacity of the phone 201 to make the local call. The telephone 101 may make the local call provided that both of the following conditions are met:

the number is a local number relative to the country in which the terminal 201 is located, and

the terminal 201 is able to connect to a local mobile telephone network. This ability is related to the contents of the card 204. In practice the card 204, also called SIM card, includes information corresponding to a telephony operator. In this case the phone 201 is able to make local calls only in the country in which the user has subscribed. In practice, it is possible for a SIM card to contain information making it possible to connect to several networks in several countries, or for the telephone 201 to be able to read several SIM cards. The case where a card called multi-SIM includes information to connect to multiple networks is here assimilated to a phone with as many SIM cards as the network to which the multi-SIM card can connect. If the phone 201 has a SIM card making it able to connect to a local area network, then it goes to step 105 of connection change. To connect to a local network means to connect as a local subscriber to a local operator, and not as a foreign user. This amounts to changing the subscription, therefore the connection identifier ie IMSI. Otherwise, the telephone 201 proceeds to a step 106 of determining the ability of the telephone 201 to establish local communication with a local access point.

In step 105 the telephone 201 makes local communication by changing the network to which it is connected to connect to a local area network. In practice it is possible that the phone 201 remains physically connected to the same base station but via another SIM card, so a different subscription. From step 105 the telephone 201 goes to step 103.

In step 106 the phone evaluates two conditions: - Does the memory 213 associate an access point identifier with the current location of the phone 201? The answer to this question is obtained by browsing the memory 213 in search of the location corresponding to the current location of the phone 201. If this location is found and if an identifier is associated with it then the condition is met. Otherwise, that is, if the location is not found or if no identifier is associated with it, then the condition is not met.

- Is the phone 201 able to make a local call? This condition is evaluated in the same way as in step 104.

If both of these conditions are fulfilled then the telephone proceeds to a step 107 of establishing a local call with an access point, otherwise the phone proceeds to a production step and transmitting a connection message to an access point. bridge.

An access point is a device capable of receiving at least one telephone call, as an answering machine is. An access point is also a device capable of transmitting at least one call to a number communicated to it via a received call. An access point is finally a device able to establish a link between a received call and a call issued. An access point is connected to a fixed telephony network.

In step 107 the telephone 201 generates a modified number to be called by inserting in front of the number entered in step 101 the access point identifier obtained in step 106. Once this operation of automatic modification of the number entered by the user performed, the phone 201 issues a call establishment request using the modified number. Since the access point identifier corresponds to a local identifier, the communication that will result from this request communication establishment will be local. In addition, it is recalled that the access point is connected to the fixed telephony network.

From step 107 we go to a step 109 in which the access point receives a call comprising in addition to its own identifier, an identifier corresponding to the number entered in step 101. The access point uses this number entered to issue a request to establish a second call to the number entered. This second communication is considered to be established from a fixed station because, it is recalled, the access point is connected to a fixed telephony network. Finally, the access point establishes a connection between the communication established by the telephone 201 and the connection established by itself, which has the effect of setting the telephone 201 and a remote terminal corresponding to the number entered in the step 101. It then goes to a step 110 in which the user of the terminal 201 and its correspondent communicate, the access point serving as a relay for this communication. In this case, the call established corresponds to a local call from a mobile station to a fixed station, and to an international call from a fixed station to a fixed or mobile station. Without the invention such a communication would correspond to an international call from a mobile station to a fixed or local station. In step 108 the phone 201 produces a communication message. Such a message has at least 3 fields. A first field identifies the recipient of the message. This first field has the identifier idP. A second field has the number entered, and a third field has the number to reach the terminal 201 via the mobile network to which it is currently connected. In practice, the connection message also includes a field corresponding to an instruction code identifying the message as a connection establishment request message.

Consider the case where the telephone 201 is able to connect to an Internet type network and to send data packets on this network. In this case, as already said, the telephone 201 produces the connection message to a TCP / IP format for example and transmits it on the Internet. The Internet will then route the connection message to a gateway identified by idP. A gateway is a device connected to both the Internet and a fixed telephone network. A gateway is able to receive messages via an Internet type data network. A gateway is also capable of making calls on a fixed telephony network and interconnecting at least two of these calls. From step 108, there is a step 111 in which a gateway receives the connection message sent in step 108. The gateway then uses the contents of the second and third fields to perform two requests for establishing communication over the network. fixed telephony to which the gateway is connected. Then the gateway interconnects the two communications thus established allowing the user of the phone 201 and the person he called to communicate, the gateway serving as a relay. This is a step 112 following step 111. In this case the communication is equivalent to two calls, including at least one international, from a fixed position. Without the invention it would be an international communication from a mobile station.

Step 103 is followed by a step 113 in which the terminal 201 and a device corresponding to the number entered in step 101 communicate directly.

There are three communication strategies here, depending on the location of the phone and its capabilities.

Here we come to describe a variant of the most complex invention.

In practice it is possible to decline the invention as a simpler variant.

In a variant of the invention, in case of a non-local call to the step

104 directly to step 106. And in step 106, if it is impossible to join a local access point, go to step 103.

In the invention, after steps 110 and 113, if the communication has been made local, then at the end of the call the telephone 201 restores the connection to the network to which the telephone 201 has been connected before step 101. FIG. illustrates the case of a mobile terminal 301 seeking to establish a communication with a telephone 302, fixed or mobile, located in the same country as the telephone 301. In addition the telephone 301 is connected to a network 303 of local mobile telephony with a subscription corresponding to the network 303. In this case the communication is established directly via the network 303 and without intermediary. Figure 4 illustrates the case of a mobile terminal 401 located in a country P1 and seeking to establish a communication with a terminal 402 located in a country P2. FIG. 4 shows that the terminal 401 is connected to a network

403 mobile phone country P1. FIG. 4 also shows an access point 404 connected to a fixed telephony network 405. The networks 403 and 405 are interconnected.

The terminal 401 determines that the terminal 402 is identified by an international number. That is to say by a number not being local for the active SIM card in the terminal 401. The terminal 401 is also able to issue a local call and knows an identifier of a local access point, it transmits so a request for communication through the access point

404 local. The access point 404 then establishes international communication between the terminals 401 and 402 via the fixed telephony network 405. Figure 5 illustrates the most complex case to which the invention can respond. Figure 5 shows a mobile terminal 501 connected to a mobile phone network 502 in a country P2 in which there is no access point. The terminal 501 seeks to establish a communication with a terminal 503 located in a country P3. In our illustration the terminal 503 is connected to a fixed telephony network 504, but in practice it could be connected to a mobile telephone network. The terminal 501 is also able to connect to a network 505 Internet.

FIG. 5 also shows a gateway 506 connected to the network 505 and to a fixed telephony network 507. Networks 502, 504 and 507 are interconnected, like most of the world's telephony networks.

In this case, in order to establish a call, the terminal 501 first transmits a connection establishment request message 508, such a message having already been described. The message 508 is sent, in this example, by the terminal 501 to the gateway 506 via the Internet network 505. In a second step the gateway 506 uses the content of the message 508 to establish two communications, one to the terminal 501, the other to the terminal 503, via the network 507. The gateway then interconnects these two communications to enable the terminals 501 and 503 to communicate. In this example the gateway 506 is in a country P1. In the practice the gateway can be in any country, including P2 and P3.

In this description, the country name should be understood as a local business area of a mobile operator. That is, the area in which a mobile operator charges local rates.

In one variant of the invention the access points and / or gateways perform a verification of the identity of the subscriber calling them or sending them a connection message. This verification is done from the MSISDN identifier corresponding to the subscriber. This identifier is either routed by the telephony network used by the subscriber or included in the connection request message. In this variant, the access point or the gateway has access to a database associating MSISDN identifiers with rights of access to the call setup service. If the subscriber's identifier is present in this database, and if the right rights are associated with it, then the access point and / or the gateway will establish the communication, otherwise no communication will be established.

In the description, access points and gateways are two types of intermediate devices, of which an important characteristic is to be connected to a fixed telephony network. By 'connected to', it is necessary to understand here 'seen as subscriber to'. The intermediate devices thus mask the mobile telephone network to which the mobile terminal is connected, the international aspect of the call.

Claims

1 - Method for establishing a communication from a mobile telephone (201) connected to a mobile telephone network in which:

a user of the mobile phone enters (101) a number to call,

after validation of the number entered, the mobile phone makes a call establishment request, the method being characterized in that: the mobile telephone is located (102),

the mobile phone analyzes (102-107) the number to be called before the call establishment request to determine a call strategy according to the number to be called and its location, the possible strategies being among the set formed by standard call and call via an intermediate device able to connect two calls,

the mobile telephone performs (109, 111, 113) the communication establishment request according to the result of the analysis.

2 - Method according to claim 1, characterized in that for the analysis: - the telephone determines (102) whether the communication to be established is local or international:

- if it is a local call, then the attempt to establish communication is performed (103) by a normal mode corresponding to the operation of the mobile phone in the absence of the invention

- if it is (106) an international call, if the phone is capable of making a local call and if the phone knows an identifier of a local access point, then the phone establishes (107) a local communication to the access point itself capable of establishing a fixed communication to the device corresponding to the number entered,

- otherwise the phone does the communication normally.

3 - Process according to claim 1 characterized in that for the analysis:

the telephone determines (102) whether the communication to be established is local or international: - If it is a local call then the attempt to establish communication is performed (103) by a normal mode corresponding to the operation of the mobile phone in the absence of the invention, - If it is is an international communication:

if (106) the telephone is capable of making a local call and if the telephone knows an identifier of a local access point, then the telephone establishes (107) a local call to the access point itself capable of to establish a fixed communication towards the device corresponding to the number entered,

- Otherwise (106) the phone transmits (108) a connection message to a gateway, said connection message comprising at least one identifier of the mobile phone and the number entered, said gateway being able to establish (111) a communication between the phone mobile device and the device corresponding to the number entered via two fixed communications.

4 - Process according to claim 3, characterized in that the connection message is an SMS type electronic message or GPRS data packet. 5 - Method according to one of claims 2 to 4, characterized in that a communication is also considered local if the mobile phone is able to make it local (104 - 105) by a connection to a local mobile network .

6 - Method according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the phone number is entered (102) via a list (203) of contacts presented by the phone in the form of an electronic address book.

7 - Process according to claim 6, characterized in that the contact list is produced from a memory (203) of contacts of the mobile phone.

8 - Method according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the mobile phone associates (213) a location of the mobile phone to an access point number.

9 - Method according to one of claims 2 to 8, characterized in that the phone associates, via a memory (213), point identifiers access and locations.