Importance

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Abstract

A secretarial telephone station for use with a secretarial answering system and a switching system which includes a plurality of subscriber telephone stations each equipped with a buzzer. The secretarial answering system is connected to the subscriber stations and transmits subscriber station busy, idle and ringing status and line identification information to the secretarial station. The secretarial station includes a lamp and switch pair for each subscriber station, a processing unit and an audible signalling circuit. The processing unit receives this information and causes the lamp associated with each of the subscriber stations to display dark, lit or flashing signals corresponding to the idle, busy and ringing status. The processing unit also causes the audible signalling circuit to provide a ringing tone wherever a lamp is flashed. In response to operation of the switch associated with a called subscriber station, the processing unit transmits a directed call pickup or a call transfer message to the switching system. It also transmits a buzzing requested message to the secretarial answering system in association with the call transfer message. The directed call pickup message identifies the subscriber station whose incoming call is to be transferred to the secretarial station for screening. The call transfer message identifies the subscriber station which is to receive a screened call. The buzzing requested message informs the secretarial answering system to cause the subscriber station's buzzer to provide an audible signal indicating that the current incoming call has been screened by a secretary.

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First Claim