Administrator designation of one or more tones and/or one or more announcements that are playable in a communication session as interruptible
View Patent ↗A control component of an apparatus in one example comprises an interface usable by an administrator to designate one or more tones and/or one or more announcements that are playable in a communication session as interruptible.
1. An apparatus, comprising:
a control component that comprises an interface usable by an administrator to designate one or more tones and one or more announcements that are playable in a communication session as interruptible, wherein the one or more tones designated as interruptible comprise a) ring back tones, b) audible alerting tones, c) congestion tones, d) reorder tones, e) call waiting tones, f) barge in tones, g) denial tone bursts, h) incoming additional call tones, and i) priority additional call tones.
2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the administrator employs the interface to dynamically designate a tone as interruptible, and wherein the tone is playable at a communication device; and
wherein the control component stops playing the tone at the communication device without playing the tone to completion upon receipt of an interruption request from a user of the communication device.
3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the administrator comprises a service provider associated with the communication device; and
wherein the service provider may customize a tone and announcement service for the communication device by employing the interface to designate the one or more tones and the one or more announcements as interruptible and one or more other tones and one or more other announcements as not interruptible.
4. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the user presses a button on the communication device to initiate an interruption of the tone; and
wherein the control component interprets the button press as the interruption request, wherein the control component stops playing the tone at the communication device based on the button press.
5. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the control component plays the tone at the communication device in a communication session; and
wherein the user of the communication device sends the interruption request to the control component to skip a remainder of the tone and progress to a next phase in the communication session; and
wherein upon receipt of the interruption request, the control component moves to the next phase in the communication session.
6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the control component comprises a mobile switching center.
7. The apparatus of claim 6 , further comprising a configuration database that stores one or more indications associated with the one or more tones and the one or more announcements that are designated by the administrator as interruptible.
8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the administrator employs the interface to set the one or more indications in the configuration database to represent that the one or more tones and the one or more announcement are interruptible.
9. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein upon receipt of an instruction to play a tone at a communication device, the mobile switching center accesses the configuration database to determine whether the tone is indicated as interruptible or not interruptible; and
wherein the mobile switching center plays the tone at the communication device.
10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein upon receipt of an interruption request from a user of the communication device, the mobile switching center stops playing the tone at the communication device if the tone is indicated as interruptible; and
wherein upon receipt of the interruption request from the user of the communication device, the mobile switching center continues playing the tone at the communication device if the tone is indicated as not interruptible.
11. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the mobile switching center comprises the interface to allow the administrator to update one or more of the one or more indications from a representation of interruptible to a representation of not interruptible.
12. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the control component allows the administrator to set a designation of a tone as interruptible and wherein the control component allows the administrator to change the designation of the tone to prevent interruption of the tone.
13. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the one or more tones and the one or more announcements that are playable in the communication session comprise audible signals in a telephone call.
14. A method, comprising the step of:
interfacing an administrator with a configuration database to allow the administrator to designate in the configuration database one or more tones and one or more announcements that are playable in a communication session as interruptible, wherein the one or more tones designated as interruptible comprise a) ring back tones, b) audible alerting tones, c) congestion tones, d) reorder tones e) call waiting tones, f) barge in tones, g) denial tone bursts, h) incoming additional call tones, and i) priority additional call tones.
15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the administrator comprises a service provider associated with a communication device, and wherein the step of interfacing the administrator with the configuration database to allow the administrator to designate in the configuration database the one or more tones and the one or more announcements that are playable in the communication session as interruptible further comprises the steps of:
allowing the service provider to modify the configuration database to customize a tone and announcement service for the communication device; and
allowing access to the configuration database for the service provider to designate the one or more tones and the one or more announcements as interruptible and one or more other tones and one or more other announcements as not interruptible.
16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the administrator dynamically designates a tone of the one or more tones as interruptible, and wherein the tone comprises an audible signal in a telephone call, the method further comprising the steps of:
playing the tone at the communication device; and
stopping the playing of the tone at the communication device before completion of the tone upon receipt of an interruption request from a user of the communication device.
17. The method of claim 14 , further comprising the steps of:
accessing the configuration database, upon receipt of art instruction to play a tone at a communication device, to determine whether the tone is indicated in the configuration database as interruptible or not interruptible; and
playing the tone at the communication device.
18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising the steps of:
stopping the playing of the tone at the communication device upon receipt of an interruption request from a user of the communication device of the tone is indicated as interruptible; and
continuing to play the tone at the communication device upon receipt of the interruption request from the user of the communication device if the tone is indicated as not interruptible.
19. The method of claim 14 , further comprising the steps of:
interfacing the administrator with the configuration database to allow the administrator access to the configuration database for an update of a designation of one or more of the one or more tones and the, one or more announcements from a representation of interruptible to a representation of not interruptible; and
preventing an interruption of the one or more of the one or more tones and the one or more announcements with the representation of not interruptible.
20. A computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions for performing steps, comprising:
means in the one or more media for interfacing an administrator with a configuration database to allow the administrator to designate in the configuration database one or more tones and one or more announcements that are playable in a communication session as interruptible, wherein the one or mare tones designated as interruptible comprise a) ring back tones, b) audible alerting tones, c) congestion tones, d) reorder tones, e) call waiting tones, f) barge in tones, g) denial tone burst h) incoming additional call tones, and i) priority additional call tones.