Importance

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Abstract

A personal number communications system assigns a personal number to each subscriber, and receives from each subscriber communication routing information in the form of one or more hierarchical lists of destinations based on the time of day and day of the week. The hierarchy and composition of the lists may be changed or may be overridden to direct selected communications to a specific destination. The system receives communications directed to a subscriber's personal number and identifies the source of the communication. The identification may be made through calling line identification, through a personalized list of callers, or though source identification. The system selects a first destination for the communication from the hierarchical list. At the first destination, the system announces the identified source of the communication and requests disposition information as to the acceptance, formal rejection or passive rejection, such as a no answer, of the communication. If accepted, the system routes the communication to the first destination. If rejected, the system routes the communication to the default destination selected by the subscriber. If there is a passive rejection, the system requests communication disposition information from the next destination in the destination list according to the hierarchy selected by the subscriber. The system continues to request communication disposition information from each sequential destination on the destination list until the communication is accepted or until the last destination on the destination list is reached, at which point the communication is routed to the last destination.

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First Claim