Importance

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Abstract

A caller-controlled barge-in telephone service, managed by telephone systems, intercepts telephone calls directed to instantly busy telephone lines predesignated as objects of this service, and: 1) verifies that the called line is a respectively predesignated object of this service and that the caller is entitled to invoke the service relative to that line; and 2) forms a bridging connection between the caller and parties to a telephone call instantly busying the called line. Verification that a caller is entitled to the service can be implemented by playing a voice announcement requesting the caller to speak or key in an authorization code. If the caller fails to respond or returns an invalid code, the caller is either disconnected or transferred to a voice mail service. Disconnection of the caller may be preceded by a voice announcement (e.g. a spoken 'goodbye'). If the called site has call waiting service, that service is applied for a predetermined time to allow the party currently using the called line to voluntarily respond to the associated call waiting signals. If the call waiting signals are not acted upon within the predetermined time, functions associated with barge-in are invoked to forcibly join an authorized caller to the busy connection at the called line. Use of the invention in various network environments is described, including use in the PSTN, in public data networks such as the Internet, and in private data networks. Limited use by a guest of an authorized subscriber is also described.

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First Claim