Contextual contact substitution for mobile devices

1. A method for context sensitive contact substitution for mobile communications, the method comprising:

selecting a contact disposed within a list of contacts in memory of a mobile computing device for use in establishing a telephone call with the selected contact through the mobile computing device;

determining a location of the mobile computing device used in establishing the telephone call;

locating in a rule table a rule corresponding to the determined location;

applying the located rule in order to identify in the list of contacts an alternate contact to the selected contact based upon the determined location and a machine learned pattern that correlates telephone calls previously established with ones of the different contacts with a proximity of the mobile computing device to those of different contacts with whom telephone calls previously had been established; and

establishing the telephone call through the mobile computing device with the alternate contact instead of the selected contact.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the telephone call is established with the alternate contact instead of the selected contact only if the selected contact has been flagged in the list of contacts as permitting an alternate contact, but otherwise establishing the telephone call with the selected contact.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the alternate contact is selected based upon auxiliary information stored in the list of contacts in connection with the selected which is common to the alternate contact.

4. A mobile computing data processing system configured for context sensitive contact substitution for mobile communications, the system comprising:

a mobile computing device comprising at least one processor and memory;

a list of contacts stored in the memory;

a phone dialer application executing in the memory of the mobile computing device; and,

a context sensitive contact substitution module coupled to the phone dialer, the module comprising program code enabled upon execution in the memory to select a contact disposed within the list of contacts for use in establishing a telephone call with the selected contact by the phone dialer, to determine a location of the mobile computing device used in establishing the telephone call, to locate in a rule table a rule corresponding to the determined location, to apply the located rule in order to identify in the list of contacts an alternate contact to the selected contact based upon the determined location and a machine learned pattern that correlates telephone calls previously established with ones of the different contacts with a proximity of the mobile computing device to those of different contacts with whom telephone calls previously had been established, and to establish the telephone call through the phone dialer with the alternate contact instead of the selected contact.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the telephone call is established with the alternate contact instead of the selected contact only if the selected contact has been flagged in the list of contacts as permitting an alternate contact, but otherwise establishing the telephone call with the selected contact.

6. The system of claim 4 , wherein the alternate contact is selected based upon auxiliary information stored in the list of contacts in connection with the selected which is common to the alternate contact.

7. A computer program product for context sensitive contact substitution for mobile communications, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a device to cause the device to perform a method comprising:

selecting by the device a contact disposed within a list of contacts for use in establishing a telephone call with the selected contact through the device;

determining by the device a location of the mobile computing device used in establishing the telephone call;

locating in a rule table a rule corresponding to the determined location;

applying the located rule in order to identify by the device in the list of contacts an alternate contact to the selected contact based upon the determined location and a machine learned pattern that correlates telephone calls previously established with ones of the different contacts with a proximity of the mobile computing device to those of different contacts with whom telephone calls previously had been established; and

establishing by the device the telephone call through the mobile computing device with the alternate contact instead of the selected contact.

8. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the telephone call is established with the alternate contact instead of the selected contact only if the selected contact has been flagged in the list of contacts as permitting an alternate contact, but otherwise establishing the telephone call with the selected contact.

9. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the alternate contact is selected based upon auxiliary information stored in the list of contacts in connection with the selected which is common to the alternate contact.