Importance

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Abstract

An apparatus and method are disclosed for accessing originating central office equipment to control the disclosure of a calling party directory telephone number and/or name (hereinafter sometimes referred to as 'DN' or 'directory telephone number with a corresponding name') to a called party who subscribes to Caller ID service or to any other Custom Local Area Switching System (hereinafter sometimes referred to as 'CLASS') service which discloses the calling party DN to the called party by performing a desired one of a plurality of automatic and/or manual calling operations. The apparatus and method are also for receiving, displaying and storing to memory a calling party DN sent from terminating central office equipment via a voice channel of a called party busy or idle telephone line in response to the receipt of the calling party flagged 'public' DN sent from originating central office equipment to which the calling party telephone line is connected. In furtherance, the apparatus and method disclosed permit recalling a stored DN from memory to be displayed in an LED or LCD display counter, and permit automatically dialing a stored DN to return a missed call. A method is also disclosed for sending to an apparatus at a called station during a silent interval of a ringing signal cycle or a call-waiting tone signal cycle an incoming caller DN sent from terminating central office equipment responsively to the receipt of the DN sent from originating central office equipment indicating that the DN is to be disclosed at the called station.

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First Claim