Background of the Invention A caller may obtain assistance from a directory service for finding information related to others, such as subscribers of the directory service.

The directory service may collect in a database telephone number, address, type of business, electronic mail address, web site address, and other similar types of information about its subscribers. A caller to obtain information calls the directory service and communicates its request to the directory assistance. The directory assistance in response orally provides the requested information. The caller at the same time may write down the information for future use.

Recently, directory assistance services have extended their services to include a form of service by which the caller may be connected to, for example, the requested telephone number automatically without actually dialing the telephone numbers from the caller telephone set. In this situation, the caller may simply accept the connection and proceed with

the call to the requested number. The caller, of course, has the option of writing down for future use the telephone number that is orally communicated to him.

Such directory services are also available in cellular telephone systems. A mobile caller may call the directory assistance to obtain information, and the caller has the option of being connected to the requested telephone number without actually dialing the telephone number, and has the option of writing down for future use the telephone number that is orally communicated to him. In case of a mobile caller, the caller very often is in a situation in which the task of writing becomes very difficult if not impossible. For example, the mobile caller may be driving while calling the directory assistance. In this situation, the caller can not write down for future uses the telephone number that is orally communicated to him.

Therefore, there is a need for a method and apparatus for obtaining information from directory assistance.

Brief Description of the Drawings FIG. 1 depicts a cellular mobile station call connection to a directory assistance.

FIG. 2 depicts a directory assistance connecting a mobile station to a requested telephone number through a public switching telephone

network without requiring the mobile station to dial the requested telephone number.

FIG. 3 depicts according to the invention, after a directory assistance operator determined the number requested by the mobile caller, the operator or the directory assistance system entering the requested number and sending it to the mobile caller.

FIG. 4 depicting, upon receiving the Flash With Information message, the record containing the directory assistance number, the mobile station storing the directory assistance number into a memory location defined for this purpose.

Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiment (s) According to one or more aspects of the invention, in a communication system, a call connection is made between a remote caller and a directory assistance. The remote caller may be a cellular mobile phone. The remote caller may request information from the directory assistance; the information may include telephone number of a subscriber.

The directory assistance may include a database that stores for retrieval the telephone number of a number of subscribers. Upon the request, the directory assistance replies with a message containing the information.

This message may be in a voice or data format. The remote unit, then, receives the message, and stores the message in pertinent parts in an

electronic format at the remote caller unit. The pertinent parts may include an international telephone number of the subscriber. As a result, the remote caller may retrieve the stored information at a future time without any need for accessing again the directory services or writing the information.

According to further aspects of the invention, the message may be replied by the directory assistance via an SS7 messaging protocol. The SS7 message may be communicated from the directory assistance to a cellular mobile switching center (MSC.) Subsequently, the message received at the remote caller may be received via at least one of an A+ messaging protocols and a wireless messaging protocols. The MSC after receiving the message may communicate the message to a cellular base station via the A+ messaging protocols. The base station then communicates the message via the wireless messaging protocols to the remote caller, which in this case may be a cellular mobile caller. The wireless messaging protocols may be any of the known protocols such as IS-95, GSM, WCDMA, and likes. In particular, the message received at the remote caller is received via a Flash With Information (FWI) message. The FWI message may include data fields for message type, acknowledgement sequence number, message sequence number, acknowledgement-required indicator, and message encryption indicator. The message further may include information record type, information record length, and data type specific

fields. Such data fields ensure adequate delivery of the information obtained from the directory assistance to the mobile station. The communication may include one or more back and froth messaging between the mobile station and the base station to ensure the entire data have been received at the mobile station. Other messaging is also possible.

One or more aspects of the invention may be more apparent by making references to the following diagrams shown in Figs 1-4. In FIG. 1, according to prior art, a cellular mobile station 101 makes a call to a directory assistance 104 requesting information. A connection is made from the mobile station 101 to a cellular base station 102 through a radio link 110 utilizing an IS-95 interface. The cellular base station 102 is connected to a cellular switching system 103 via an A+ link 111. The cellular switching system 103 which may be a mobile switching center (MSC) is connected to the directory assistance 104 system via an SS7 trunk connection 112. The mobile station 101 caller after making its request for information from the directory assistance 104 may receive the information orally from the an operator or a computer animating human voice.

Referring to FIG. 2, alternatively, according to the prior art, the directory assistance 104 may connect the mobile station 101 to a requested telephone number through a public switching telephone network 205 without requiring the mobile station 101 to dial the requested telephone number. The directory assistance 104 may include a switching section and

an interface for an operator to control the switch. The operator may be a human person or an intelligent machine that possibly recognizes spoken and data words communicated by the mobile station 101 caller.

Referring to FIG. 3, according to the invention, after the directory assistance operator 104 determined the number requested by the mobile caller 101, the number is entered, possibly by the operator, into the directory assistance system, possibly via a man-machine interface. The mobile caller 101 may be connected to the requested number at the same time while making the connection to the Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN) 205, as shown in FIG. 2. An SS7 message 301 is sent from the directory assistance system 104 to the cellular switching system 103.

Message 301 is sent even if the directory assistance system 104 forwards the connection to PSTN 205. The SS7 message 301 may contain the redirection number of where the call is being transferred by the directory assistance system 104 if the call was re-directed directly through the PSTN 205, and or contains the requested information.

The type of message 301 used for notifying the mobile caller 104 may be a Call Progress Message as described in ITU Q. 763 Specifications for Signaling System No. 7, page 7. The Call Progress Message may include a Redirection Message as described in ITU Q. 763 Specifications for Signaling System No. 7, page 8. The information parameter field can use a spare, such as all ones for bits C, B and A, to indicate that an operator

redirected the call. The rest of the bits in this field would carry very little meaning for this type of message and therefore are irrelevant. The number itself would be formatted in the message as indicated in section 3.46 and 3.9 of the ITU Q. 763 specification, pages 43 and 13-14. The number contained in this message should be in the world numbering format without any access code for international dialing.

Referring to FIG. 3, upon receiving the SS7 message 301, the cellular switch 103 extracts the directory assistance number from the message 301 and creates an A+ message 302. An MSC-BS"A"Interface Messages, as documented in System Interface Control document, ID: CIG-COM-GEN- SICD-007, released by Motorola on the 24 November 1998, contains pertinent sections relating to message 302. The A+ message 302 may be used with a"Flash With Information"message and transmitted to mobile station 101 via message 303, as described in MSC-BS"A"Interface Messages page 34 of 116. This message is defined to provide supplementary service information between a base station and a mobile station. The sub-record, within the Flash With Information record would be similar to the Calling Party Number record as described on page 110 of 116. All parameters of the Calling Party Number-record are carried over into the new record for consistency and potential future use.

Table 1 shown below provides the format of the new sub-record.

Directory Assistance Number IS-95 Information Records Information Record Type User Data Triplet Description # of Bvtes Bit Format Range Directory Assistance This element is used to convey Variable rrrr rrrr R = 04H Number The directory assistance number. nnnn nnnn N = Variable' ttti iiip t=OH-02H° pqqd dddd i = OH-01 H' dddd dddd pd = OH-02H "q = 30H-39H (ASCII digits, I digit per byte, by3bits,upto32"offset digitspossible)ddd00000

a. Indicates the number of bytes to follow, after this byte, within this Information Record Type, b. Type of Number-values supported = OH = Unknown, 01 H = International number. 02H = National number. c. Numbering Plan Id-values supported: OH = Unknown, 01 H = ISDN/Telephony numbering plan. d. Presentation Indicator-values supported: 0 = Allowed, I = Restricted. 2 = Unavailable. e. Screening Indicator-values supported: 0 = User provided, not screened, I = User provided, verified and passed, 2 = User provided, verified and failed, 3 = Network provided.

The value"r"is set to 04H as an indicator that this is a Directory Assistance Number sub-record, however any unused value could be used for this indication. The number contained in this message would be a world number plus an international access code, if necessary. Therefore, this number would be the exact number that would be dialed by the mobile 101 subscriber if it was placing a call directly to the number provided by the directory assistance system.

Referring to FIG. 4, upon receiving the Flash With Information message 303, the record containing the directory assistance number, the mobile station 101 stores the directory assistance number into a memory 401 location defined for this purpose. The memory 401 may be an integral part of mobile station 101 even though it is shown outside the mobile station 101. The mobile user can then recall this number at any time,

before a new number subsequently received for storing in this location.

The mobile user may use the stored information through a series of keypad entries on the mobile station 101, for instance, by pressing function (FCN) followed by the pound (#) key. This action would call the number up into the display memory. At this point the user can perform actions with this number as he could with any other number. For instance, once the number is in the display location, pressing the SEND or TALK button would initiate a call to that number. Additionally, Pressing the store (STO) button on the mobile station 101 would start a sequence to store the number in a permanent location at memory 401. Since the number that was received has already been translated into a world number, the number can be dialed or stored directly without modification by the mobile.