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 associated subscriber station, first and second processing units, and an audible signalling circuit. The first processing unit receives this information according to a link bus protocol for packetized messages. The second 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 second processing unit also causes the audible signalling circuit to provide a ringing tone whenever a lamp is flashed. In response to operation of the switch associated with a called subscriber station, the second processing unit transmits a directed call pickup and a call transfer message to the switching system which route the subscriber's incoming call to the secretarial station for screening. A buzzing requested message is then transmitted to the secretarial answering system via the first processing unit according to a link bus protocol for packetized messages. 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