Importance

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Abstract

An automatic telephone calling system that characterizes the responses from telephone subscribers' telephone stations to placed calls from the system. The system comprises communication lines which enable the system to place a call to a subscriber's station, to receive the response thereto, and exchange information therebetween. Operator stations enable operators of the calling system to communicate, via a respective communication line, with a subscriber's station upon an operable connection of the line to the subscriber's station and to the operator station. A call processor places calls to subscribers' stations and operably connects and disconnects each communication line to a respective subscriber's station and to a respective operator station. A trunk processor characterizes the response from a respective subscriber's station to a placed call and determines whether a response characterized as a voice signal is delivered by an answering machine. The system also has a call manager that controls the availability of each operator station to be operably connected to a communication line by the call processor. In operation, the call processor operably connects a communication line to a respective subscriber's station upon a characterization of the response on the line as a voice signal, operably connects the line to an available operator station upon a determination by the trunk processor, and disconnects the line to the subscriber's station and to the operator station upon a determination that the response characterized as a voice signal is delivered by an answering machine.

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First Claim