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United States Patent | 5,408,515 |
Bhagat , et al. | April 18, 1995 |
A ground-to-air telephone calling system is provided including a computer for receiving an airborne telephone number and a call-back number from a calling party and forming the telephone numbers into a data signal comporting with existing protocol filed in the FCC, an uplink unit for uplinking the data signal to a satellite and a plurality of downlink stations for receiving the data signal from the satellite; a plurality of ground stations corresponding to each of the downlink units for receiving the data signals and passing a call signal identifying the airborne telephone and particular ground station to a corresponding transmit/receive unit for subsequent transmission to the aircraft; a call being initiated from the ground station to the calling party over the public switched telephone network if the aircraft responds to the call signal. An alternative embodiment provides for a plurality of telephones on board the aircraft, and is capable of directing a call from a ground based caller to a particular telephone assigned to a passenger on the aircraft.
Inventors: | Bhagat; Jai P. (Jackson, MS), Hays; William D. (Jackson, MS), Oswalt; Ernest A. (Raymond, MS) |
Assignee: |
Mobile Telecommunication Technologies
(Jackson,
MS)
|
[*] Notice: | The portion of the term of this patent subsequent to January 11, 2011 has been disclaimed. |
Appl. No.: | 08/226,394 |
Filed: | April 12, 1994 |
Application Number | Filing Date | Patent Number | Issue Date | ||
980756 | Nov., 1992 | ||||
759626 | Sep., 1991 | 5278891 | |||
501430 | Mar., 1990 | ||||
188557 | Apr., 1988 | ||||
Current U.S. Class: | 455/431 ; 455/428 |
Current International Class: | H04B 7/185 (20060101); H04Q 007/38 () |
Field of Search: | 379/59,92,56,58,440 342/357 364/407 455/33.1,34.1 |
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