Importance

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Abstract

A communications system offering telephone number portability services, where a subscriber of a ported telephone number is able to maintain existing voice mail services from an existing end office switching system, independent of the new end office switching system serving the ported telephone number. The end office switching system accessing the voice mail system includes ported number forwarding logic. Using this logic, that office sends a signaling message via a common channel interoffice signaling network. A calling party field of the message specifies the ported telephone number (i.e., the actual called number), instead of the actual calling party number. The end office switching system serving the voice mail system, also referred to as the accessed end office switching system, receives the signaling message, extracts the ported telephone number from the calling party field, and forwards the ported telephone number information to the voice mail system. The information is forwarded to the voice mail system across a data link interface according to a protocol that is independent of any predetermined range of provisioned exchanges.

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First Claim