Multi-way call connection management system

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a multi-way connection management (MWCM) system for monitoring and maintaining call connections among a group of participating parties. The multi-way call connection may be established by connecting the originating party and the desired participating parties. Once a multi-way call connection is established, the multi-way call connection may be maintained until the originating party desires to terminate the call. Any disconnected party may rejoin the multi-way call by an automatic redial performed by the MWCM system. Additionally, the originating party may provide a call continuation period of the multi-way call when the originating party can rejoin the multi-way call. In this manner, other participating parties may stay in the multi-way call during the provided period without the originating party being connected. Advantageously, the originating party may save the time and effort of repeating a tedious process (by calling all other participating parties) to establish a multi-way call.

1 . A method of monitoring and managing a multi-way telephone call connection comprising: 
 receiving a request for a multi-way telephone call from a first user, the request including at least a phone number of a second user and a phone number of a third user;    establishing the multi-way telephone call based on the request, the established multi-way telephone call connecting the first user, the second user and the third user;    storing in a database for storing information about the request for the multi-ay telephone call including phone numbers of the at least first user, the second user and the third user in a database; and    monitoring the multi-way telephone call for a line disconnection; and    re-establishing the multi-way telephone call when an unintentional line disconnection is detected.    
   
   
       2 . The method as described in  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 terminating the multi-way telephone call if the first user requests to hang-up; and    removing the list for the multi-way telephone call from the database upon a termination of the multi-way telephone call,    wherein the multi-way telephone call is maintained until a request to terminate is received from the first user.    
   
   
       3 . The method as described in  claim 1 , the monitoring the multi-way telephone call step further comprising: 
 updating the list upon a detection of the line disconnection, the list being    associated with the multi-way telephone call.    
   
   
       4 . The method as described in  claim 1 , the re-establishing step further comprising: 
 checking whether the line disconnection is caused by a line drop or a hang-up;    reconnecting the disconnected line if the disconnection is caused by the line drop; and    removing the telephone number from the list if the disconnection is caused by a hang-up.    
   
   
       5 . The method as described in  claim 4 , wherein the hang-up is a received predefined touch tone pattern.  
   
   
       6 . The method as described in  claim 4 , further comprising: 
 terminating the multi-way telephone call if the telephone numbers of the at least second user and the third user have been removed from the list; and    upon terminating the multi-way telephone call, removing the list associated with the multi-way telephone call from the database.    
   
   
       7 . The method as described in  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 receiving a call continuation period of the multi-way telephone call from the first user; and    terminating the multi-way telephone call after the period if the first user can not rejoin the multi-way telephone call.    
   
   
       8 . The method as described in  claim 7 , further comprising: 
 receiving a re-connection request from the first user during an automatic redial process,    wherein the automatic redial process is initiated upon a detection of a line disconnection and the received re-connection request from the first user is a predefined request pattern.    
   
   
       9 . The method as described in  claim 1 , wherein 
 the request for a multi-way telephone call includes a plurality of phone numbers to which the first user desires to establish the multi-way telephone call.    
   
   
       10 . A telephone call management system capable to manage a multi-way call connection, comprising: 
 a phone service module configured for establishing and terminating a telephone call connection, the telephone call connection including the multi-way call connection among a plurality of users;    a multi-way call connection management module communicatively coupled to the phone service module, the multi-way call connection management module configured for monitoring the multi-way call connection and detecting a disconnected line in the multi-way call connection; and    a database communicatively coupled to the phone service module and the multi-way call connection management module, the database including a plurality of multi-way call lists manipulated by the multi-way call connection management module,    wherein a first user originates the multi-way call connection to the plurality of users and provides a telephone number of each of the plurality of users to the multi-way call connection management module which creates the multi-way call list associated with the multi-way call connection when the phone service module establishes the multi-way call connection.    
   
   
       11 . The telephone call management system as described in  claim 10 , wherein the phone service module provides a wireless phone service.  
   
   
       12 . The telephone call management system as described in  claim 10 , wherein the phone service module provides a land line phone service.  
   
   
       13 . The telephone call management system as described in  claim 10 , wherein the phone service module provides a Voice over IP (VoIP) service.  
   
   
       14 . The telephone call management system as described in  claim 10 , wherein the multi-way call list includes connection status information, a telephone number and hang-up information for each of the plurality of users.  
   
   
       15 . The telephone call management system as described in  claim 10 , wherein the multi-way call connection management module requests an automatic redial process to the phone service system upon a detection of a disconnected line.  
   
   
       16 . A computer readable medium containing program instructions for monitoring and managing a multi-way telephone call connection, the program instructions comprising 
 receiving a request for a multi-way telephone call from a first user, the request including phone numbers of a plurality of participating users;    establishing the multi-way telephone call based on the request, the established multi-way telephone call connecting the first user and each of the plurality of participating users;    creating a multi-way call list including connection status information, a telephone number and hang-up information of the first user and each of the plurality of participating users, the multi-way call list being associated with the multi-way telephone call;    monitoring the multi-way telephone call for any disconnected line;    performing an automatic redial process by re-establishing a connection to the multi-way telephone call upon a detection of the disconnected line, wherein the line is disconnected unintentionally;    terminating the multi-way telephone call if the first user desires to terminate; and    removing the a multi-way call list associated with the terminated multi-way telephone call,    wherein the plurality of participating users remain in the multi-way call telephone call until the first user desires to terminate the multi-way telephone call.    
   
   
       17 . The computer readable medium as described in  claim 16 , wherein the hang-up information indicates whether the line disconnection is desired.  
   
   
       18 . The computer readable medium as described in  claim 16 , further comprising: 
 updating the multi-way call list upon a detection of the disconnected line, wherein the connection status and the hang-up information of the disconnected line are updated.    
   
   
       19 . The computer readable medium as described in  claim 16 , further comprising: 
 receiving a call continuation period of the multi-way telephone call from the first user; and    terminating the multi-way telephone call after the period if the first user can not rejoin the multi-way telephone call.    
   
   
       20 . The computer readable medium as described in  claim 16 , further comprising: 
 receiving a re-connection request from the first user during an automatic redial process wherein the received re-connection request from the first user is a predefined touch tone pattern.