Importance

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Abstract

A ground-to-air telephone calling system is provided including a computer for receiving an airborne telephone number and a call-back number from a calling party and forming the telephone numbers into a data signal comporting with existing protocol filed in the FCC, an uplink unit for uplinking the data signal to a satellite and a plurality of downlink stations for receiving the data signal from the satellite; a plurality of ground stations corresponding to each of the downlink units for receiving the data signals and passing a call signal identifying the airborne telephone and particular ground station to a corresponding transmit/receive unit for subsequent transmission to the aircraft; a call being initiated from the ground station to the calling party over the public switched telephone network if the aircraft responds to the call signal. An alternative embodiment provides for a plurality of telephones on board the aircraft, and is capable of directing a call from a ground based caller to a particular telephone assigned to a passenger on the aircraft.

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First Claim