CA2707020A1

CA2707020A1 - Method and system for modifying routing information associated to a party

Info

Publication number: CA2707020A1
Application number: CA2707020A
Authority: CA
Inventors: Jonathan Allan Arsenault; Denis Mercier; Eric John Wolf
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: BCE Inc
Priority date: 2007-12-27
Filing date: 2007-12-27
Publication date: 2009-07-09
Anticipated expiration: 2027-12-27
Also published as: US20100312912A1; CA2707020C; US11317174B2; WO2009082804A1

Abstract

A method and system implemented by a network entity. The method comprising accessing communication routing information associated to a party. The communication routing information being indicative of at least a first termination device to which incoming communications for the party are to be routed. The method further comprises monitoring at least one of location information, presence information and behavior information associated to the party and processing the communication routing information and the at least one of the location information, presence information and behavior information at least in part on the basis of modification information in an attempt to determine the suitability of modifying the communication routing information. When it is determined that the communication routing information is suitable for modification, causing the party to be advised.

Description

I TITLE: METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MODIFYING ROUTING

6 The present invention relates generally to a method of routing communications 7 destined for a given party, and more particularly, to a method and system for 8 modifying the way communications are routed to the given party.

BACKGROUND

12 Most telephony service providers offer a variety of telephony features to their 13 customers. These telephony features help telephony users to manage the way their 14 incoming and outgoing communications are handled. Some non-limiting examples of such telephony features include call waiting, call forwarding, "find me /
follow me"
16 (FM/FM) call forwarding, distinctive ringing, selective call rejection, selective call 17 acceptance, outgoing call blocking (or barring), etc.

19 Each of these call features allows a user to tailor the way their incoming and outgoing calls, or other forms of communication (such as SMS messages, emails, etc...) are 21 handled. One of the more popular features used by telephony users is the user 22 configurable call routing. Call routing can be done via telephony features such as call 23 forwarding, selective call forwarding or "find me / follow me" (FM/FM) call 24 forwarding, among other possibilities. Such features allow a user to define when they can be reached, where the can be reached and how they can be reached. For example, 26 a user having the "find me / follow me" feature can define their personal routing 27 information as follows: When anybody calls my office number, I want my office 28 number to ring 3 times, then if I don't answer, I want my cell phone to ring 3 times. If 29 1 don't answer my cell phone, then route the call to my voicemail. The options for routing an incoming call are virtually unlimited.

32 In general, in order to configure the call routing rules, a user is usually required to 33 interact with a representative, an interactive voice response (IVR) unit, or a data 34 network site (e.g., a web site) associated with a provider of this feature.
As such, one I of the deficiencies with call routing rules, such as "find me / follow me"
rules, is that 2 configuring these rules is a user-initiated task. In other words, in order to configure 3 the routing rules, a user must login to a configuration (or provisioning) system in 4 order to change previously established rules. In some situations, this process can be inconvenient, impractical and/or inefficient. In addition, the fact that it is user initiated 6 can result in a user forgetting to change the routing rules they have previously 7 established, which can lead to unwanted consequences in the form of important calls 8 being missed.

Take for example the case of Alice, a telephony user who subscribes to the "find me /
11 follow me" feature. On Monday, Alice decides to work from her home office, and as 12 such, configures her call routing rules such that all calls to her work office are 13 forwarded to her home office phone number. Then, on Tuesday, Alice returns to her 14 work office, but forgets that all her calls are still being forwarded to her home office.
It is possible that Alice doesn't realize that her calls are being forwarded to her home 16 office until later in the day, after which time many important calls may have been 17 missed. Situations like this can result in user dissatisfaction with the telephony 18 service.

In these and other situations, it is apparent that existing ways of configuring telephony 21 features are inconvenient, impractical and/or inefficient.

26 In accordance with a first broad aspect, the invention provides a method implemented 27 by a network entity. The method comprises accessing communication routing 28 information associated to a party. The communication routing information being 29 indicative of at least one termination device to which incoming communications for the party are to be routed. The method further comprises monitoring behavior 31 information associated to the party and processing the communication routing 32 information and the behavior information at least in part on the basis of modification 33 information in an attempt to determine if the communication routing information is 34 suitable for modification. When it is determined that the communication routing 1 information is suitable for modification the method further comprises causing the 2 party to be advised.

4 In accordance with a second broad aspect, the invention provides a network entity comprising an interface and a processing entity. The interface is operative for 6 accessing communication routing information associated to a party, the 7 communication routing information being indicative of at least one termination device 8 to which incoming communications for the party are to be routed, and monitoring 9 behavior information associated to the party. The processing entity is operative for processing the communication routing information and the behavior information at 11 least in part on the basis of modification information in an attempt to determine if the 12 communication routing information is suitable for modification, and for causing the 13 party to be advised when it is determined that the communication routing information 14 is suitable for modification.
16 In accordance with a third broad aspect, the invention provides a computer-readable 17 storage medium comprising a program element for execution by a processing unit.
18 The program element comprises a first program code for accessing communication 19 routing information associated to a party. The communication routing information being indicative of at least one termination device to which incoming communications 21 for the party are to be routed. The program element further comprises a second 22 program code for monitoring behavior information associated to the party, and a third 23 program code for processing the communication routing information and the behavior 24 information at least in part on the basis of modification information in an attempt to determine if the communication routing information is suitable for modification. The 26 program element further comprises a fourth program code for causing the party to be 27 advised when said processing has determined that the communication routing 28 information is suitable for modification.

In accordance with a fourth broad aspect, the invention provides a method 31 implemented by a network entity. The method comprises accessing communication 32 routing information associated to a party. The communication routing information 33 being indicative of at least one termination device to which incoming communications 34 for the party are to be routed. The method further comprises monitoring location 1 information associated to the party and processing the communication routing 2 information and the location information at least in part on the basis of modification 3 information in an attempt to determine if the communication routing information is 4 suitable for modification. When it is determined that the communication routing information is suitable for modification the method further comprises causing the 6 party to be advised.

8 In accordance with a fifth broad aspect, the invention provides a network entity 9 comprising an interface and a processing entity. The interface is operative for accessing communication routing information associated to a party, the 11 communication routing information being indicative of at least one termination device 12 to which incoming communications for the party are to be routed, and monitoring 13 location information associated to the party. The processing entity is operative for 14 processing the communication routing information and the location information at least in part on the basis of modification information in an attempt to determine if the 16 communication routing information is suitable for modification, and for causing the 17 party to be advised when it is determined that the communication routing information 18 is suitable for modification.

These and other aspects and features of the present invention will now become 21 apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon review of the following description 22 of specific embodiments of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying 23 drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

27 In the accompanying drawings:

29 Fig I illustrates a system comprising a conflict monitoring entity that enables modification of routing information associated to a party, in accordance with a non-31 limiting embodiment of the present invention;

33 Fig 2 illustrates an example of potential contents of a database of the system shown in 34 Figure 1;

2 Fig 3 illustrates an example of operation of the conflict monitoring entity shown in 3 Figure 1; and 5 Fig 4 illustrates an example of potential criteria used by the conflict monitoring entity 6 shown in Figure 1 to determine the suitability of modification of communication 7 routing information.

9 It is to be expressly understood that the description and drawings are only for the purpose of illustration of certain embodiments of the invention and are an aid for 11 understanding. They are not intended to be a definition of the limits of the invention.

4 Shown in Figure I is a non-limiting example of an architecture for a communications network 38 that is suitable for enabling communication between communication 6 devices associated to different customers, such as customers 12 and 16, for example.
7 Although only two customers 12 and 16 are shown in Figure 1, it should be 8 appreciated that the communications network 38 is suitable for enabling 9 communication between hundreds of thousands of customers, if not more, via their associated communication devices.

12 In today's society, many telephony users have multiple communication devices that 13 they use on a regular basis in order to originate and receive communications such as 14 phone calls, emails, instant messages or text messages, among other possibilities. For example, it is not unusual for a given telephony user to have a cellular phone (or smart 16 phone), a home phone and a work-place phone each having a separate phone number.
17 In the example shown in Figure 1, customer 12 is associated with four different 18 communication devices 141, 142, 143 and 144 that can each be employed by customer 19 12 to effect telephonic communications, including handling incoming calls, originating outgoing calls, and participating in calls in progress. Although customer 21 12 is associated with four different communication devices 141, 142, 143 and 144, it 22 should be appreciated that in various other embodiments, customer 12 could be 23 associated with any number of communication devices 14.

In the specific embodiment shown in Figure 1, the communication devices 141, 142, 26 143 and 144 associated with customer 12 include a cellular phone (communication 27 device 141) a POTS home phone (communication device 142) a POTS work phone 28 (communication device 143) and a Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone 29 (communication device 144) that is implemented through customer 12's work-place computer. It should be appreciated, however, that each of the communication devices 31 14k, 142, 143, 144 could be any type of communication device suitable for originating, 32 receiving and participating in communications with other communication devices 33 through the communications network 38. For example, each one of the 34 communication devices 141, 142, 143, 144 could be any of a wired Plain Old 1 Telephony System (POTS) phone (including a cordless phone), a wireless phone (e.g., 2 a cellular phone or other mobile communication device including a telephony-enabled 3 personal digital assistant (PDA)), a Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone, a 4 POTS phone equipped with an analog terminal adapter (ATA), a soft phone (i.e., a computer equipped with telephony software), or a telephony-enabled television (TV) 6 unit (e.g., a set-top box connected to a television and a remote control).
Depending on 7 the functionality of each communication device 141, 142, 143, 144, a call originated by, 8 destined for, or in progress at the communication device 141, 142, 143, 144 may be a 9 voice communication session, a video communication session, a multimedia communication session, or any other type of communication session.

12 For the purposes of simplicity, customer 16 is associated with only one 13 communication device 18 that is a wired Plain Old Telephony System (POTS) phone.
14 It should, however, be appreciated that customer 16 could also be associated to any number of communication devices, including any of the types of communication 16 devices listed above.

18 Referring back to customer 12, each of the communication devices 141, 142, 143 and 19 144 associated to customer 12 is connected to a switching/routing entity 24 via various network portions 21, 22 and 23 of the communications network 38. Communication 21 device 18 is also connected to the switching/routing entity 24 through a network 22 portion 20 of the communications network 38. As will be described in more detail 23 below, the communications network 38 may comprise a portion of one or more of the 24 Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), a wireless network (e.g., a cellular network), and a data network (e.g., the Internet). The switching/routing entity 24 26 enables the communication devices 141, 142, 143, 144 and 18 to reach or be reached by 27 any of various other communication devices (which are not shown for the sake of 28 simplicity).

The nature of the network portions 20, 21, 22 and 23 and the switching/routing entity 31 24 will depend on the nature of the communication devices 141, 142, 143.
144, 18 32 being used, and where the switching/routing entity 24 resides in the communications 33 network 38. This will be further described with respect to the communication devices 34 141, 142, 143, 144, associated with customer 12.

2 For example, where the communication device 14, is a wireless phone, the 3 switching/routing entity 24 may reside in a wireless network. In addition, the network 4 portion 21 may comprise a wireless link in combination with a base station and a network-side wireline link, and the switching/routing entity 24 may be part of a 6 mobile switching center. Where the communication devices 142 and 143 are wired 7 POTS phones, the switching/routing entity 24 may reside in the PSTN. In addition, 8 the network portion 23 may comprise a telephone line in the PSTN and the 9 switching/routing entity 24 may be part of a central office switch. In yet another example, where the communication device 144 is a VoIP phone (or a POTS phone 11 equipped with an ATA) the switching/routing entity 24 may reside in a data network.
12 In such a case, network portion 22 may comprise a digital communications link (e.g., 13 Ethernet) and the switching/routing entity 24 may be part of a router (e.g., an edge 14 router or a core router) or a softswitch. In accordance with a specific non-limiting example, the switching/routing entity 24 can be the MCS 5200 Soft Switch 16 manufactured by Nortel Networks Limited of 8200 Dixie Road, Brampton, Ontario 17 L6T 5P6, Canada, although it should be appreciated that this is but one non-limiting 18 example among many possibilities within the scope of the present invention.
In yet 19 another example of implementation, where a communication device (not shown) is a soft phone, its associated network portion may comprise a digital communications 21 link (e.g., a digital subscriber line (DSL) link or a coaxial cable) and the 22 switching/routing entity 24 may be part of a server equipped with a modem.
It will be 23 appreciated that various other implementations of network portions and the 24 switching/routing entity 24 are possible (e.g., such as where the communication device is a telephony-enabled TV unit).

27 It will also be appreciated that, as shown in Figure 1, the switching/routing entity 24 28 may span across different networks (i.e., PSTN, wireless, and/or data) in which case 29 the switching/routing entity 24 may comprise one or more gateways 41, 42 and 43 for enabling communication and interoperability between these networks.
Alternatively, 31 the switching/routing entity 24 may not include the gateways 41, 42 and 43.
Instead, 32 the gateways could be part of a separate server that is not shown. Such gateways are 33 well known to those skilled in the art and need not be described in further detail.

1 The switching/routing entity 24 is operative to effect switching/routing operations to 2 help route communications originating from one of the communication devices 141, 3 142, 143 and 144 and destined for a called party device (such as the communication 4 entity 18). In addition, the switching/routing entity 24 is operative to effect switching/routing operations to help route communications originated at a calling 6 party device (such as the communication entity 18) and destined for one of the 7 communication devices 141, 142, 143 and 144. Furthermore, the switching/routing 8 entity 24 is communicatively coupled to a call processing entity 26, which is 9 described later on, and interacts therewith. The switching/routing entity 24 comprises suitable hardware, firmware, software, control logic, or a combination thereof for 11 implementing its functionality.

13 The call processing entity 26 is communicatively coupled to a database 28, and is 14 operative to interact with the switching/routing entity 24 and the database 28 in order to effect various call processing operations when a communication device (such as the 16 communication devices 141, 142, 143 and 144) receives an incoming call, originates an 17 outgoing call, or participates in a call in progress.

19 Figure 2 shows a non-limiting example of the potential contents of the database 28. In this example, the database 28 stores a plurality of records 2001-200k each associated 21 with a respective customer (such as customer 12) which may be a potential calling 22 party as well as a potential called party. Each record 2001-200k stores an association 23 between a respective customer and the communication devices that are associated to 24 that customer. For example, the customer can be identified by a party identifier, which may be based on the customer's name or billing address, among other possibilities.
26 The communication devices associated to the customer could be identified by a 27 telephone number identifying a telephone line associated with a POTS
28 communication device, an electronic serial number (ESN) and telephone number 29 associated with a wireless communication device, and an IP address and telephone number (and/or another Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) such as a Session 31 Initiation Protocol (SIP URI) used by a VoIP phone, an ATA-equipped POTS
phone, 32 or a softphone. In addition, each record 2001-200k stores an indication of call 33 processing information associated with each customer. This call processing 34 information indicates how calls involving the customer, i.e., calls originated by or I destined for a communication device associated with the given customer, are to be 2 processed by the call processing entity 26.

4 The call processing information associated with a given customer can take on many 5 forms. In the embodiment shown, the call processing information associated with the 6 customer is indicative of telephony features subscribed to by that customer.
As will be 7 described below, most telephony service providers provide a plurality of telephony 8 services that will affect the way either an incoming communication, or an outgoing 9 communication, is handled. As such, the call processing information that is stored in 10 the database 28 is used by the call processing entity 26 during the processing of calls 11 in order to apply any telephony feature subscribed to by the respective customer.

12 Subscription to different telephony features may be completely independent from one 13 customer to another and there is no restriction on a number or combination of features 14 that may be subscribed to by any one customer. In some cases, a customer may not subscribe to any telephony feature, while in other cases a customer may subscribe to 16 all available telephony features.

18 Some non-limiting examples of available telephony features include:
19 - a call forwarding feature, whereby every incoming call destined for a given communication device associated with a customer is to be forwarded to a second 21 communication device associated with the customer;
22 a selective call forwarding feature, whereby incoming calls that are originated by 23 one or more communication entities associated with a selected given party, and 24 destined for a first communication device associated with the customer is to be forwarded to a second communication device associated with the customer.
26 - a no-answer call forwarding feature, whereby an incoming call destined for a first 27 communication device associated with the customer is to be forwarded to a second 28 communication device associated with the customer if the incoming call is not 29 answered on the first communication device within a predetermined period of time (e.g., ringing cycle);
31 - a "find me / follow me" (FM/FM) call forwarding feature, whereby an incoming 32 call is to be forwarded to a plurality of communication devices respectively 33 associated with the customer either simultaneously or sequentially (e.g., until the 34 call is answered or until all the communication devices have been used and the I call remains unanswered, in which case the call can be forwarded to a voicemail 2 system);
3 - a first distinctive ringing feature, whereby incoming calls destined for a 4 communication device are to be announced by different audio signals (e.g., ring tones or songs) produced by the communication device when they originate from 6 communication entities associated with different calling parties;
7 - a selective call rejection feature, whereby an incoming call originated by any of 8 one or more communication entities each associated with a given party and 9 destined for a communication device associated with the customer is prevented from reaching the communication device associated with the customer;
11 - a selective call acceptance feature, whereby only an incoming call originated by 12 any of one or more communication entities each associated with a given party and 13 destined for a communication device associated with the customer is allowed to 14 reach the communication device associated with the customer;
- a call waiting feature, whereby a communication device participating in a call in 16 progress produces a notification for the user of the communication device of an 17 incoming call destined for the communication device;
18 - a calling line identification (CLID) displaying feature, whereby CLID
information 19 associated with a communication entity originating a call that is destined for a communication device associated with the customer is displayed by the 21 communication device associated with the customer;
22 - a CLID blocking feature, whereby CLID information (e.g., a telephone number 23 and/or a name or other party identifier) associated with a communication device 24 with which the customer originates an outgoing call destined for a communication entity belonging to another party is not provided to the communication entity 26 belonging to the other party; and 27 - a speed calling feature, whereby an outgoing call destined for any of one or more 28 communication devices that are associated with the same or different 29 predetermined party can be originated by inputting into a communication device associated with the customer a specific code (e.g., a one or two digit code) that is 31 shorter than the telephone number associated with the communication device for 32 which the outgoing call is destined.

1 It is to be understood that these examples of telephony features are presented for 2 illustrative purposes only and are not to be considered limiting in any respect as 3 various other telephony features are or may become available.

A customer who subscribes to one or more of the telephony features listed above is 6 generally able to configure the manner in which the telephony features work.
This 7 configuration is done by interacting with a representative, an interactive voice 8 response (IVR) unit, or a data network site (e.g., a web site) associated with a provider 9 of this feature. The following are some non-limiting examples of the manner in which a customer can configure each telephony feature:
11 - for the aforementioned call forwarding feature, the customer may provide an 12 indication as to which of their associated communication devices to forward 13 incoming communications (for example, a customer could specify that whenever 14 an incoming call is destined for his/her home phone, that the incoming call should be forwarded to his/her cell phone).
16 - for the aforementioned selective call forwarding feature, the customer may 17 provide an indication of the given calling party to whom the selective call 18 forwarding feature is applicable, and to which communication device all incoming 19 calls originating from that calling party should be forwarded to (for example, a customer could specify that whenever an incoming call was originated from a 21 communication device associated with Bill, then that incoming call should be 22 forwarded directly to the customer's work phone) 23 - for the aforementioned no-answer call forwarding feature, the customer may 24 specify the second communication device to which to forward incoming calls to, and the period of time before the incoming call should be forwarded to that second 26 communication device (for example, a customer could specify that if an incoming 27 call for their cellular phone is not answered within four rings, then that incoming 28 call should be forwarded to the customer's work phone);
29 - for the aforementioned FM/FM call forwarding feature, the customer could specify the order in which different communication devices associated to the 31 customer are tried, when forwarding an incoming call. The customer could also 32 specify the amount of time each communication device should be tried. (for 33 example, a customer could specify that all incoming calls destined for their work 34 phone should first be routed to their home phone and that if after 3 rings the 1 incoming call is not answered, then at that time, the incoming call should be 2 forwarded to the customer's cellular phone) The customer could also specify when 3 all communication devices should be tried simultaneously (for example, the 4 customer could specify that between lam and 9am all calls destined for anyone of his/her communication devices should simultaneously be sent to all of his/her 6 communication devices);
7 - for the aforementioned first distinctive ringing feature, the customer may specify a 8 specific audio tone associated to respective different parties (for example, the user 9 may specify a first ring tone when a call is originating from the customer's mother, a second ring tone when a call is originating from the customer's 11 girlfriend, and a third ring tone when a call is originating from the customer's 12 boss) 13 - for the aforementioned selective call rejection feature, the customer may specify 14 one or more parties from whom incoming calls are to be rejected, as well as possible time periods during which the selective call rejection feature should be 16 active (for example, the customer may specify that calls originating from 17 communication devices associated with the customer's parents should be rejected 18 between 9am and 3pm on weekdays) 19 - for the aforementioned selective call acceptance feature, the customer may specify the one or more parties from whom incoming calls are to be accepted, as well as 21 possibly time periods during which the selective call acceptance feature should be 22 active (for example, the customer may specify that only calls originating from the 23 customer's boss should be accepted on the customer's cell phone between 9am 24 and 5pm) - for the aforementioned speed calling feature, the customer may specify the codes 26 associated to different predetermined telephone numbers (for example, the 27 customer may specify that code 11 is associated with the telephone number for the 28 communication device belonging to the customer's mother) It is to be understood that these are non-limiting examples of ways in which the 31 customer can configure different telephony features, and are presented for illustrative 32 purposes only and are not to be considered limiting in any respect.

I In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the database 28 can also 2 store information on whether a particular party subscribes to a "conflict monitoring 3 feature". This "conflict monitoring feature' is offered in order to avoid potential 4 conflicts between the way in which a telephony feature has been configured, and the way in which a user actually wants the telephony feature to function. These types of 6 potential conflicts often occur when a user has configured one or more telephony 7 features that provide communication routing information. As used herein, the term 8 "communication routing information" relates to any information that instructs the call 9 processing entity 26 how to route an incoming communication. For example, telephony features such as call forwarding, selective call forwarding, no-answer call 11 forwarding and "find-me/follow-me", are all considered to provide communication 12 routing information. In general, the communication routing information is indicative 13 of at least one termination device associated to the called party to which incoming 14 communications for that party are to be routed.

16 In certain circumstances, the communication routing information specifies more than 17 one termination device to which incoming calls should be routed. For example, the 18 communication routing information may be indicative that incoming calls are to be 19 routed to two or more termination devices simultaneously (such as the user's work phone and the user's cell phone). Alternatively, the communication routing 21 information may specify a sequence of termination devices to which incoming calls 22 should be routed. For example, the communication routing information may be 23 indicative that calls to the customer's work phone should first be routed to the 24 customer's home phone, and then if there is no answer after 3 rings, to route the call to the customer's cell phone. Regardless of how the communication routing 26 information is set up, it will identify at least one first termination.
device, which is the 27 one or more termination device to which the calls are routed first.

29 In light of the fact that many of the above described telephony features are user configurable, it is possible that a user may configure his/her communication routing 31 information in a way that is appropriate at a given time, but that may not be 32 appropriate later on. For example, if on Monday customer 12 decides to work from 33 her home office, as opposed to her work office, then customer 12 might configure her 34 communication routing information such that all incoming communications destined 1 for her work phone (i.e. communication device 143) are to be forwarded to her home 2 phone (i.e. communication device 142). However, on Tuesday, when customer 12 3 returns to her work office, she may forget to reconfigure her communication routing 4 information, thereby creating a potential conflict since important calls that would 5 normally be arriving at her work phone are still being routed to her home phone. This 6 could easily result in important calls being missed. Therefore, as will be described in 7 more detail further on, the conflict monitoring feature determines when such a 8 potential conflict exists, and causes a customer to be advised of the potential conflict.
9 In this manner, a customer can be advised of a potential conflict so that they can re-10 configure or adjust his/her communication routing information , if need be, prior to 11 any important calls (or emails, or text messages) being missed.

13 In the example shown in Figure 2, only the customer associated with record 14 subscribes to the conflict monitoring feature contemplated herein, while the customers 15 associated with the records 2003_k do not. It is to be understood that, in other 16 embodiments, all customers may benefit from the conflict monitoring feature 17 contemplated herein without needing to subscribe thereto, in which case the database I8 28 may not include information on whether a particular customer subscribes to the 19 conflict monitoring feature.
21 For the sake of example, record 2002 is associated with customer 12 shown in Figure 22 1, and record 2003 is associated with customer 16. Record 2002 includes an indication 23 of the party identifier associated with customer 12 (which could be customer 12's 24 name) and an indication of the communication devices 141, 142, 143 and 144.
associated with customer 12. As shown, record 2002 includes an indication of the ESN
26 and telephone number associated with cellular phone 141, an indication of the 27 telephone number associated with the home POTS phone 142, an indication of the 28 telephone number associated with the work POTS phone 143 and an indication of the 29 1P address and telephone number associated with the work VOIP phone 144. In addition, record 2002 includes an indication of the call processing information 31 associated with customer 12. As shown, customer 12 subscribes to three telephony 32 features; namely the "find me/follow me" feature, the selective ring tone feature and 33 the conflict monitoring feature that will be explained in more detail herein.

I As mentioned above, record 2003 is associated with customer 16, and as such includes 2 an indication of the party identifier associated with customer 16. Record 2003 also 3 includes an indication of the telephone number associated with the POTS
phone 18 4 belonging to customer 16 and the telephony features subscribed to by customer 16. In the example shown, customer 16 only subscribes to one telephony feature, namely the 6 speed dial feature.

8 With renewed reference to Figure 1, and as mentioned above, the call processing 9 entity 26 is operative to interact with the switching/routing entity 24 and the database 28 in order to effect various call processing operations when a communication device 11 (such as the communication devices 141, 142, 143 and 144) connected to the 12 switching/routing entity 24 receives an incoming call, originates an outgoing call, or 13 participates in a call in progress. More particularly, the call processing entity 26 is 14 operative to process calls arriving at the switching/routing entity 24. The processing of a given call by the call processing entity 26 can be viewed as the call processing 16 entity 26 performing one or more operations to process the given call. In this 17 embodiment, the call processing entity 26 is operative to process calls in accordance 18 with a set of rules. Each rule may be defined by a condition, an operation to be 19 performed if the condition is satisfied for a given call, and an operation to be performed if the condition is not satisfied for a given call (e.g., <condition>
21 <operation to be performed if condition is satisfied> <operation to be performed if 22 condition is not satisfied>). For a given rule, the condition may be defined in terms of 23 one or more characteristics of a call. Examples of characteristics of a call are: its 24 origin, which may be expressed, for instance, as a telephone number or other identifier (e.g., an IP address or SIP URI) associated with a communication device 26 that originated the call; its intended destination, which may be expressed, for instance, 27 as a telephone number or other identifier (e.g., an IP address or SIP URI) associated 28 with a communication device for which the call is destined; and a time at which it was 29 originated (e.g., a date, hour, minute, etc.). For a given rule, the condition may also be defined in terms of call processing information (in this case, telephony feature 31 information) that is included in the records 2001-200k of the database 28.
For a given 32 rule, the operations to be performed based on whether the condition is satisfied 33 depends on the nature of the given rule (e.g., route a call to its intended destination, 34 forward a call in accordance with a call forwarding feature, cause production of an I audio signal in accordance with a distinctive ringing feature, prevent establishment of 2 an outgoing call in accordance with an outgoing call barring feature, etc.).
The call 3 processing entity 26 comprises suitable hardware, firmware, software, control logic, 4 or a combination thereof for implementing its-functionality.

6 Continuing with Figure 1, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, 7 a conflict monitoring entity 30 for implementing the conflict monitoring feature 8 contemplated herein is communicatively coupled to the switching/routing entity 24, 9 the call processing entity 26, and the database 28. It should be appreciated that the conflict monitoring entity 30 and the call processing entity 26 could have been shown 11 as the same box in Figure 1. In such a case, the functionality of the conflict 12 monitoring entity 30 would be included as part of the functionality of the call 13 processing entity 26.

As will be further detailed later on, the conflict monitoring entity 30 is operative for 16 accessing the communication routing information associated to a given subscriber of 17 the conflict monitoring feature, and for monitoring behavior information associated to 18 that subscriber. This information is processed at least in part on the basis of 19 modification information stored in memory unit 36 (which will be described in more detail further on) in an attempt to determine the suitability of modifying the 21 communication routing information. Upon determination that the communication 22 routing information associated to the given party is suitable for modification, the 23 conflict monitoring entity 30 then causes the given party to be advised of this 24 determination. In this manner, the conflict monitoring entity 30 provides a sort of "safety feature" for detecting when the communication routing information should be 26 modified, and for advising the user of this determination. The conflict monitoring 27 feature can help a customer avoid the situation where their communication routing 28 information is configured in a way such that it is not functioning in a way that the 29 customer might expect. In other embodiments, when the conflict monitoring entity 30 has determined that the communication routing information is suitable for 31 modification, it is also able to provide a suggestion to the customer as to how to 32 modify their communication routing information, if desired. This provides added 33 convenience for the customer. In accordance with a non-limiting embodiment, the I customer may be provided with a link to an interface for enabling them to modify or 2 update their communication routing information.

4 The conflict monitoring entity 30 comprises suitable hardware, firmware, software, control logic, or a combination thereof for implementing a plurality of functional 6 units, including a communication interface 32, a processing entity 34 and a memory 7 unit 36, whose functionality will be described in further detail below.

9 In some embodiments, one or more of the switching/routing entity 24, the call processing entity 26, the database 28, and the conflict monitoring entity 30 may reside 11 in a common network element of the communications network 38. In such 12 embodiments, links between these components may be physical (i.e., wired or 13 wireless) links or logical links. In other embodiments, different ones of the 14 switching/routing entity 24, the call processing entity 26, the database 28, and the conflict monitoring entity 30 may reside in different network elements of the 16 communications network 38 that are interconnected via one or more physical links 17 and possibly other elements (e.g., gateways) of the communications network 38. Also, 18 although it is depicted in Figures 1 and 2 as being one component, the database 28 19 may be distributed in nature, i.e., it can have portions of its content stored in different memory units possibly located in different network elements of the communications 21 network 38. For example, the call processing information shown in Figure 2 may be 22 stored in a memory unit dedicated to storing this information and distinct from a 23 memory unit that stores other contents of the database 28 shown in Figure 2.

The interaction between the switching/routing entity 24, the call processing entity 26, 26 the database 28, and, in particular, the conflict monitoring entity 30 for implementing 27 the "conflict monitoring feature" will now be described in more detail, by way of 28 example, with reference to customer 12 and the flow chart shown in Figure 3.

Step 300 31 Firstly, at step 300, the conflict monitoring entity 30 accesses customer 12's call 32 processing information stored in database 28, in order to obtain customer 12's 33 communication routing information. The communication routing information 34 associated to customer 12 can be accessed in a variety of ways. For example, conflict I monitoring entity 30 can periodically poll database 28 in order to determine if there is 2 a change in customer 12's communication routing information. Alternatively, 3 whenever call processing entity 26 detects that customer 12 has re-configured her 4 communication routing information (by interacting with a representative, an IVR or a website associated with the service provider), the call processing entity 26 can cause 6 the modified communication routing information to be forwarded to the conflict 7 monitoring entity 30. In yet a further alternative, each time the processing entity 26 8 receives a request to originate or terminate a call for customer 12 it may trigger 9 conflict monitoring entity 30 to poll database 28.
11 For the sake of example, let us assume that customer 12 has decided to work from 12 home today, and has configured her "find-me/follow-me" telephony feature such that 13 any incoming calls destined for her work phone (i.e. communication device 143) 14 should be forwarded firstly to her home phone (i.e. communication device 142) and then if there is no answer after 3 rings, to her cellular phone (i.e.
communication 16 device 141). As such, by accessing record 2002 contained in database 28 (via 17 communication interface 32) the conflict monitoring entity 30 becomes aware that 18 customer 12's communication routing information specifies that when an incoming 19 call is destined for her work phone (i.e. communication device 143), then the first termination device to which calls for that phone are to be routed, is to her home phone 21 (i.e. communication device 142).

23 Step 302 24 At step 302, the conflict monitoring entity 30 monitors the behavior information associated to customer 12. It should be appreciated that although step 302 is shown in 26 Figure 2 as being performed after step 300, steps 300 and 302 can be performed 27 substantially simultaneously without departing from the spirit of the invention.

29 In order to monitor the behavior information associated with customer 12, the conflict monitoring entity 30 interacts with the switching/routing entity 24 as well as the 31 network portions 21, 22 and 23. The nature of the behavior information, as well as the 32 manner in which this information is monitored is described in more detail below.

2 The behavior information that is monitored by the conflict monitoring entity 30 can be 3 indicative of certain activities that have been performed, or that are to be performed, 4 by a user. In addition, the behavior information can be indicative of the "presence"
5 information associated with a user.

7 For example, the presence information that is monitored by the conflict monitoring 8 entity 30 is generally indicative of a customer's ability to engage in communication 9 exchanges on a given communication device over the communications network 38.
10 For example, customer 12's work computer (i.e. communication device 144) which is 11 a computer terminal that is connected to a network, is able to provide presence 12 information via a network connection to a presence service, such that the presence 13 information can be made available for distribution to others. When customer 12 is 14 logged into the communication network 38 via her work place computer (i.e.
15 communication device 144) presence information is provided to other user's of the 16 network, which conveys customer 12's availability for communication, such as via 17 instant messaging or voice communication, such as Voice over IP, for example. As 18 such, in the case where customer 12 logs onto her work place computer (i.e.
19 communication device 144) the network portion 22 and switching routing entity 24 are 20 able to convey to the communication interface 32 that the user is present at 21 communication entity 144. In this manner, the conflict monitoring entity 30 that is 22 monitoring customer 12's behavior information becomes aware of customer 12's 23 presence information.

As mentioned above, the behavior information that is monitored by the conflict 26 monitoring entity 30 can also be indicative of certain activities that have been 27 performed, or that are to be performed, by a user. For example, the behavior 28 information may be indicative of a communication device that is being used by the 29 customer to make an outgoing call, a communication device that has been turned off or a scheduled event contained in the customer's electronic organizer.

32 In the case where the behavior information is indicative that customer 12 is using one 33 of her associated communication devices 141, 142, 143, 144 to make an outgoing call, 34 the network portion and switching/routing entity 24 associated with that 1 communication device are able to detect that the device is making an outgoing call, 2 and informing the conflict monitoring entity 30 as to which communication device 3 141. 142, 143, 144 is making the outgoing call. For example, in the case where a 4 customer originates a call at her work phone (communication device 143), the network portion 23 will detect use of the work phone and will indicate to the switching routing 6 entity 24 that phone 143 is being used. This information will be passed from the 7 switching/routing entity 24 to the call processing entity 26 and the conflict monitoring 8 entity 30, such that the conflict monitoring entity 30 is aware that customer 12's work 9 phone has been used.
11 In the case where the behavior information is indicative that one or more of the 12 customer's communication devices 141, 142,143,144 is turned off, the network portion 13 associated with that communication device and the switching routing entity 24 advise 14 the conflict monitoring entity 30 that the given communication device has been turned off.

17 In the case where the behavior information is indicative of a scheduled event 18 contained in an electronic organizer associated to customer 12 (such as microsoft 19 outlook), the conflict monitoring entity 30 may monitor the information stored in the electronic organizer in order to determine scheduled events. By monitoring the 21 scheduled events associated to customer 12, the conflict monitoring entity 30 can 22 determine when the customer has meetings, out of office days and/or telephone 23 conferences, which could indicate that one or more communication devices associated 24 to customer 12 should not be disturbed during those times. Typically a customer's electronic organizer will operate on one of the customer's computing devices.
As 26 such, in the case of customer 12, the electronic organizer is executed on customer 12's 27 work place computer (i.e. communication devicel44). As such, the information 28 contained in the customer's electronic organizer is provided to the conflict monitoring 29 entity 30 by the computer via network portion 22 and the switching routing entity 24..
31 Step 304 32 At step 304, the communication routing information and the behavior information 33 associated to customer 12 are processed at least in part on the basis of modification 34 information. This processing is done by the conflict monitoring entity 30 in an attempt I to determine the suitability of modifying the communication routing information. As 2 will be described in more detail below, the modification information can be stored in 3 the memory unit 36 of the conflict monitoring entity 30 and provides a series of 4 conditions for enabling the processing entity 34 to determine whether the communication routing information associated to customer 12 is suitable for being 6 modified. For example, depending on whether a given condition is met, or not met, 7 the conflict monitoring entity 30 will determine that the communication routing 8 information is suitable for modification.

Shown in Figure 4 is a flow diagram showing some non-limiting examples of 11 conditions contained within the modification information for enabling the conflict 12 monitoring entity 30 to determine whether the communication routing information is 13 suitable for modification. As will be used herein, the term first termination device, 14 refers to the first communication device identified in the customer's communication routing information to which incoming calls should be routed. It is possible that the 16 first termination device includes two or more termination devices. As shown, 17 condition 400 is indicative that in situations where the communication device being 18 used by customer 12 to make an outgoing call is not the first termination device, then 19 the communication routing information may be suitable for modification.
Condition 402 is indicative that when customer 12 is not in proximity to the first termination 21 device, the communication routing information may be suitable for modification.
22 Condition 404 is indicative that when the first termination device is not the cheapest 23 termination device in the vicinity of customer 12, the communication routing 24 information may be suitable for modification. Condition 406 is indicative that when the communication device at which customer 12 is present is not the first termination 26 device, the communication routing information may be suitable for modification.
27 Finally, Condition 408 is indicative that when customer 12 is not suitable for being 28 disturbed by the first termination device, such as in the case where the first 29 termination device is turned off, the communication routing information may be suitable for modification. As shown in box 412, in the case where these conditions are 31 not met, then the conflict monitoring entity 30 will simply continue to monitor the 32 behavior information.

1 The manner in which the conflict monitoring entity 30 determines whether the above 2 conditions are satisfied based on the behavior information being monitored by the 3 conflict monitoring entity 30 will be described in more detail further on with respect 4 to specific examples.

6 It is to be understood that the examples of conditions contained in the modification 7 information shown in Figure 4 are presented for illustrative purposes only and are not 8 to be considered limiting in any respect.

Although, the above described conditions for determining if the routing information is 11 suitable for modification only consider the first termination device, it should be 12 appreciated that other conditions that are dependent on the second or third termination 13 device specified in the customer's routing information, are also within the scope of 14 the present invention.

16 Step 306 17 Referring back to the flow chart of Figure 3, once the conflict monitoring entity 30 18 has determined that the communication routing information is suitable for being 19 modified, it proceeds to step 306 wherein it causes customer 12 to be advised. This may be done in a variety of different ways. For example, the user may be advised via 21 a telephone call from a human operator or from a synthesized voice unit.
The 22 telephone call can be destined for one or more of the communication devices 141. 14,, 23 143. 144 associated with customer 12. Alternatively, customer 12 may be advised via 24 an email, a text message, an SMS or via another type of audio or visual cue that is sent to one or more of communication devices 141, 142, 143, 144. For example, the 26 conflict monitoring entity 30 may be operative to send one or more electronic 27 messages such as electronic mail (email) messages, instant messaging (IM) messages 28 (including IM voice messages), or text messages (e.g., Short Messaging Service 29 (SMS) or Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) messages) to a communication device and/or a computing device associated with customer 12.

32 In accordance with a non-limiting example of implementation, the conflict monitoring 33 entity 30 advises customer 12 that the communication routing information may be 34 suitable for modification by providing a message such as "please check your 1 communication routing settings", "your communication routing settings should be 2 changed", "a conflict has been detected with your communication routing settings" or 3 "would you like to modify your communication routing settings at this time".
4 Depending on how the customer is advised, i.e. via a telephone call, or a text message, the above notification can be presented to customer 12 either verbally or via written 6 text. In an alternative embodiment, the conflict monitoring entity 30 may simply 7 cause customer 12 to be advised of a potential conflict via a unique ring tone, or other 8 sound, such that when customer 12 hears that sound, she knows that there could be a 9 potential conflict with her routing information.

11 In order to cause customer 12 to be advised in one of the manners identified above, 12 the conflict monitoring entity 30 interacts with the call processing entity 26, the 13 switching/routing entity 24 and the network portions 21, 22 and 23 associated with the 14 communication devices 141, 142, 143, 144 that are being used in order to advise customer 12 that the communication routing information may be suitable for 16 modification.

18 Upon receipt of the indication that the communication routing information is suitable 19 for modification, customer 12 may use one or more of her communication devices 141, 142, 143, 144 to interact with the call processing entity 26 and the 21 switching/routing entity 24 in order to re-configure her communication routing 22 information.

24 In accordance with a further non-limiting example of implementation, once the conflict monitoring entity 30 has determined that the communication routing 26 information is suitable for modification, it may further be operative for determining a 27 suggestion as to how the communication routing information should be modified. The 28 conflict monitoring entity 30 is then operative for providing that suggestion to the 29 customer.

31 As will be described in more detail below, the conflict monitoring entity 30 is able to 32 determine one or more suggestions for modifying the communication routing 33 information based at least in part on the modification information contained in the 34 memory unit 36. Although not shown in Figure 4, the modification information may 1 further comprise certain conditions wherein when the behavior information satisfies 2 one or more of the given criteria, a suggestion for modifying the communication 3 routing information is provided. As such, by processing the behavior information on 4 the basis of the modification information, the conflict monitoring entity 30 is able to 5 determine a suggestion as to how to modify the communication routing information.

7 In the same manner as described above, the suggestion as to how to modify the 8 communication routing information can be provided to customer 12 via a telephone 9 call from a human operator or from a synthesized voice unit. The telephone call can 10 be made to one or more of the communication devices 141, 142, 143, 144 associated 11 with customer 12. Alternatively, customer 12 may be provided with the suggestion via 12 an email, a text message or via an SMS sent to one or more of communication devices 13 141, 142, 143, 144. The suggestion may be provided to customer 12 via a message such 14 as "would you like to change your routing information to (insert suggestion)", "please 15 change your routing information to (insert suggestion)". Depending on how the 16 customer is advised, i.e. via a telephone call, or a text message, the above messages 17 can be presented to customer 12 either verbally or via written text.

19 Inaccordance with an alternative example of implementation (not shown in Figure 3) 20 in certain circumstances, instead of advising customer that it has been determined that 21 the communication routing information may be suitable for modification and then 22 leaving it up to customer 12 to re-configure the communication routing information, 23 the conflict monitoring entity 30 may instead simply proceed to cause the 24 communication routing information to be modified when it has determined that 25 modification is suitable. This will be described in more detail below with respect to a 26 specific example.

28 When a customer, such as customer 12, subscribes to the conflict monitoring feature, 29 the process outlined in Figure 3 can be performed on a continuous, ongoing basis. In such a case, the conflict monitoring entity 30 is continuously, or at regular intervals, 31 accessing the communication routing information associated to customer 12 and 32 monitoring the behavior information associated to customer 12. The conflict 33 monitoring entity 30 is also continuously processing this information on the basis of 1 the modification information in an attempt to determine when the communication 2 routing information is suitable for modification.

4 However, in an alternative embodiment, the process outlined in Figure 3 may be performed only when triggered by a certain event. For example, the process may be 6 triggered when an incoming call destined for one or more of communication devices 7 141, 142, 143, 144 arrives at the switching/routing entity 24. In such a case when the 8 switching/routing entity 24 receives a call destined for one of the communication 9 entities 141. 142, 143. 144 associated to customer 12, the call processing entity 26 will determine, by accessing database 28, that customer 12 subscribes to the "conflict 11 monitoring feature" described herein. Upon detection that customer 12 subscribes to 12 the "conflict monitoring feature", the call processing entity 26 will cause the conflict 13 monitoring entity 30 to initiate the process described above with respect to Figure 3.
14 As such, each time customer 12 receives an incoming call, the conflict monitoring entity 30 will perform the above described process in an attempt to determine whether 16 customer 12's communication routing information is suitable for modification.

18 In accordance with another alternative embodiment, the above described process for 19 implementing the conflict monitoring feature will be initiated when customer 12 originates an outgoing call from one or more of communication devices 141, 142, 143, 21 144. It should be appreciated that the conflict monitoring feature may be initiated 22 based on other triggers or events, without departing from the spirit of the invention.

24 The functioning of the above described conflict monitoring feature will now be described in more detail with respect to specific examples of use. These examples will 26 be described on the assumption that the conflict monitoring entity 30 is performing 27 the method of Figure 3 on a continuous basis, and not when triggered by a specific 28 event.

Example 1 31 In order to illustrate a first example in which the conflict monitoring feature may be 32 useful, let us assume that on Monday, customer 12 decides to work from home, at 33 which point she configures her "find me/follow me" feature such that her 34 communication routing information specifies that any incoming calls destined for her 1 work phone (i.e. communication device 143) should be forwarded firstly to her home 2 phone (i.e. communication device 142) and then, if there is no answer after 3 rings, to 3 her cellular phone (i.e. communication device 141). As such, her communication 4 routing information specifies that the first termination device to which incoming calls destined for her work phone (i.e. communication device 143) are to be routed, is to her 6 home phone (i.e. communication device 142).

8 Given that the conflict monitoring entity 30 has access to the communication routing 9 information associated to customer 12, the conflict monitoring entity 30 is aware that for incoming calls destined for customer 12's work phone (i.e. communication device 11 143), the first termination device to which calls are to be routed is to customer 12's 12 home phone (i.e. communication device 142). The conflict monitoring entity 30 also 13 monitors the behavior information associated to customer 12. This behavior 14 information, as well as the communication routing information, is processed on the basis of the modification information stored in the memory unit 36.

17 On Monday, while customer 12 is working from home, the conflict monitoring entity 18 30 does not determine that the communication routing information is suitable for 19 modification, given that the behavior information does not satisfy any of the criteria contained in the modification information. This makes sense since while customer 12 21 is at home, her communication routing information is configured to work in the 22 manner that she expects.

24 On Tuesday morning, customer 12 returns to her work office, but forgets to re-configure her communication routing information. As such, all incoming 26 communications to her work phone (i.e. communication device 143) are still being 27 routed to her home phone (i.e. communication device 142). Given that customer 12 is 28 no longer at home, it is possible that important calls being forwarded to her home 29 phone may be missed. Fortunately, during this time, the conflict monitoring entity 30 is monitoring the behavior information associated to customer 12, and is processing 31 this information, as well as the communication routing information, on the basis of the 32 modification information stored in memory 36. At this point, the behavior information 33 being monitored by the conflict monitoring entity 30 may satisfy one or more of the 34 criteria contained within the modification information, such that the conflict l monitoring entity 30 will determine that the communication routing information is 2 suitable for modification.

4 For example, assuming that when customer 12 arrives at work she originates an outgoing call from her work phone (i.e. communication device 143), then the behavior 6 information being monitored by conflict monitoring entity 30 will be indicative that a 7 call has been originated from communication device 143. As shown in Figure 4, 8 condition 400 contained within the modification information indicates that when the 9 communication device being used by the subscriber to make an outgoing call is not the first termination device, then the communication routing information may be 11 suitable for modification (result 410). Given that the conflict monitoring entity 30 is 12 aware that the first termination device specified in the communication routing 13 information is customer 12's home phone, and not the work phone that was just used 14 to originate an outgoing call, based on criteria 400, the conflict monitoring entity 30 will determine that customer 12's communication routing information may be suitable 16 for modification.

18 In an alternative embodiment, when the behavior information being monitored by 19 conflict monitoring entity 30 is indicative that a call has been originated from communication device 143, which is customer 12's work phone, then the conflict 21 monitoring entity 30 may determine that customer 12 is at her work premises. As 22 shown in Figure 4, condition 402 contained within the modification information 23 indicates that when the subscriber is not in close proximity to the first termination 24 device, then the communication routing information may be suitable for modification (result 410). Given that the conflict monitoring entity 30 is aware that the first 26 termination device specified in the communication routing information is customer 27 12's home phone, and that the behavior information is indicative that customer 12 is 28 not in proximity to her home phone, the conflict monitoring entity 30 will determine 29 that customer 12's communication routing information may be suitable for modification.

32 It should be appreciated that the information such as the geographical location of 33 customer 12's home phone (communication entity 142) and/or her work phone 34 (communication entity 143) can be part of the modification information stored in 1 memory 36. In addition, conditions indicative that customer 12 is no longer in 2 proximity to the first termination device can also be stored in the modification 3 information. For example, condition 402 may be indicative that the subscriber is not 4 in close proximity to the first termination device, if the subscriber is present at her work phone. Such parameters can be built into the conflict monitoring feature, such 6 that they are specified by the service provider, or alternatively, the customer can 7 configure these parameters.

9 Still keeping with the above scenario wherein customer 12 returns to work on Tuesday and forgets to re-configure her communication routing information, the 11 determination that the communication routing information is suitable for modification 12 could also be done on the basis of behavior information that is indicative of customer 13 12's presence information. For example, assuming that when customer 12 returns to 14 work on Tuesday, she logs onto her work place computer (i.e. communication device 144), then the presence information being monitored by conflict monitoring entity 30 16 will be indicative that customer 12 is present at communication device 144.
As shown 17 in Figure 4, condition 406 contained within the modification information indicates 18 that when the communication device at which the subscriber is present is not the first 19 termination device, then the communication routing information may be suitable for modification. Given that the conflict monitoring entity 30 is aware that the first 21 termination device specified in the communication routing information is customer 22 12's home phone (i.e. communication device 142), and not the VoIP phone on which 23 the user is present, the processing entity 34 will determine that customer 12's 24 communication routing information may be suitable for modification.
26 Once the conflict monitoring entity 30 has determined that the communication routing 27 information is suitable for modification, the conflict monitoring entity 30 will then 28 cause customer 12 to be advised. As mentioned above, this may be done by sending a 29 text message, or a voice message to one or more of her communication devices 141, 142, 143. 144. Given that in the scenario given above, customer 12 is no longer at her 31 home phone 142, it would make sense for customer 12 to be advised via one or both of 32 her work phone (communication entity 143) or her cellular phone (communication 33 entity l41). The message may indicate "please change your communication routing I information" or "would you like to change your communication routing information", 2 among other possibilities.

4 Example 2 5 In this example, let us assume that customer 12 has a meeting outside the office on 6 Monday morning, and as such has configured her "find me/follow me" feature such 7 that her communication routing information specifies that any incoming calls destined 8 for her work phone (i.e. communication device 143) should be forwarded to her 9 cellular phone (i.e. communication device 141). As such, the communication routing 10 information specifies that the first termination device to which incoming calls 11 destined for her work phone (i.e. communication device 143) are to be routed, is to her 12 cell phone (i.e. communication device 141).

14 Then in the afternoon, customer 12 returns to her office but forgets to re-configure her 15 communication routing information. As such, all incoming communications to her 16 work phone (i.e. communication device 143) are still being routed to her cell phone 17 (i.e. communication device 141). Given that customer 12 presumably still has her cell 18 phone with her, there is minimal risk that incoming calls will be missed.
However, 19 assuming that her cell phone (i.e. communication device 14,) has the most expensive 20 use plan, and given that customer 12 is now in the vicinity of her work phone (i.e.
21 communication device 143) as well as her work computer which has VoIP
capabilities 22 (i.e. communication device 144), it is more than likely that there is a conflict between 23 how customer 12 would like her incoming calls to be routed, and how they are 24 currently being routed. More specifically, customer 12 would probably like her 25 incoming calls for her work phone to go to her work phone, and not be routed to her 26 cell phone, which has the more expensive use plan.

28 Fortunately, conflict monitoring entity 30 is monitoring the behavior information 29 associated to customer 12, and is processing this information, as well as the 30 communication routing information, on the basis of the modification information 31 stored in memory 36. Given the above scenario, there are a number of conditions 32 contained within the modification information that may be satisfied, thus causing the 33 conflict monitoring entity 30 to determine that the communication routing information 34 is suitable for modification.

2 For example, when the user returns to her office, she may use her work phone to 3 initiate a call. As such the behavior information associated with customer 12, which is 4 being monitored by the conflict monitoring entity 30, is indicative that customer 12 is in proximity to her work phone, and her VoIP phone. Therefore, when customer 6 uses her work phone, customer 12's behavior information will be indicative that 7 customer 12 is in the vicinity of her work phone 143 and VoIP phone. Assume also 8 that the conflict monitoring entity 30 is aware of the cost structure of each of customer 9 12's communication devices. As such, the conflict monitoring entity 30 is aware that customer 12's cell phone is the communication device with the most expensive use 11 plan, and that customer 12's work place computer that implements a VoIP
phone 12 (communication device 144) has the cheapest use plan.

14 As shown in Figure 4, condition 404 contained within the modification information indicates that when the first termination device is not the cheapest communication 16 device in proximity to the subscriber, then the communication routing information 17 may be suitable for modification (result 410). Given that the conflict monitoring entity 18 30 is aware that the first termination device specified in the communication routing 19 information is customer 12's cell phone (communication device 141), and that the behavior information is indicative that customer 12 is in proximity to her work place 21 computer and her work place phone, which both have cheaper cost structures, the 22 conflict monitoring entity 30 will determine that customer 12's communication 23 routing information may be suitable for modification.

It should be appreciated that information such as the locations of customer 12's work 26 place computer (communication entity 144) and work phone (communication entity 27 143) can also be part of the modification information stored in memory 36.
In 28 addition, information such as the cost structure of the communication devices 141, 29 142, 143 and 144 can also be part of the modification information. Although the cellular phone has been described above as being the communication device with the 31 most expensive use plan, it should be appreciated that any communication device 32 could have the most expensive cost structure, and that these things can vary 33 depending on a variety of factors such as subscription plan, service provider, etc.

1 Keeping with the above scenario wherein customer 12 returns to work in the 2 afternoon and forgets to re-configure her communication routing information, instead 3 of determining that the communication routing information is suitable for 4 modification on the basis of her use of her work phone, this determination may instead be made on the basis of behavior information in the form of presence 6 information. For example, assuming that when customer 12 returns to work in the 7 afternoon, she logs onto her work place computer (i.e. communication device 144). At 8 that point, the behavior information being monitored by conflict monitoring entity 30 9 will be indicative that customer 12 is present at communication device 144.
As shown in Figure 4, condition 406 contained within the modification information indicates 11 that when the communication device at which the subscriber is present is not the first 12 termination device, then the communication routing information may be suitable for 13 modification. Given that the conflict monitoring entity 30 is aware that the first 14 termination device specified in the communication routing information is customer 12's cell phone (i.e. communication device 141), and not the VoIP phone on which the 16 user is present, which has a cheaper cost structure than the cell phone, the conflict 17 monitoring entity 30 will determine that customer 12's communication routing 18 information may be suitable for modification.

Once the conflict monitoring entity 30 has determined that the communication routing 21 information might be suitable for modification, the conflict monitoring entity 30 will 22 cause customer 12 to be advised. As mentioned above, this may be done by sending a 23 text message, or a voice message to one or both of her work phone (communication 24 entity 143) or her cellular phone (communication entity 141). The message may indicate "please change your communication routing information" or "would you like 26 to change your communication routing information", among other possibilities.

28 Example 3 29 In this example, let us assume that customer 12 is working at a client site, away from her work office, and as such has configured her "find me/follow me" feature such that 31 her communication routing information specifies that any incoming calls destined for 32 her work phone (i.e. communication device 143), her home phone (i.e.
communication 33 device 142) or her VoIP phone (i.e. communication device 144) should be forwarded 34 to her cellular phone (i.e. communication device 141). As such, customer 12's I communication routing information specifies that the first termination device to which 2 incoming calls destined for all of her other communication devices are to be routed, is 3 her cell phone (i.e. communication device 14,).

At 2pm, customer 12 has an important meeting scheduled with the client. This 6 scheduled meeting has been entered into her electronic organizer contained on her 7 workplace computer. As such, the behavior information being monitored by the 8 conflict monitoring entity 30, is indicative that customer 12 has a meeting scheduled 9 at that time. Therefore, when conflict monitoring entity 30 processes this information, as well as the communication routing information, on the basis of the modification 11 information stored in memory unit 36, the behavior information will cause the conflict 12 monitoring entity 30 to determine that the communication routing information is 13 suitable for modification. More specifically, as shown in Figure 4, condition 408 14 contained within the modification information indicates that when the first termination device is not suitable for being disturbed, then the communication routing 16 information may be suitable for modification (result 410). Given that the conflict 17 monitoring entity 30 is aware that the first termination device specified in the 18 communication routing information is customer 12's cell phone (communication 19 device 14,) which is currently being carried by customer 12, and given that customer 12 is about to go into a meeting and probably doesn't want to be disturbed, the 21 conflict monitoring entity 30 will determine that customer 12's communication 22 routing information may be suitable for modification.

24 It should be appreciated that information such as situations wherein customer 12 shouldn't be disturbed by her cell phone (communication entity 141) can also be part 26 of the modification information stored in memory 36. A list of situations wherein a 27 customer does not wish to be disturbed can be entered into the memory unit 36 by the 28 customer.

Once the conflict monitoring entity 30 has determined that the communication routing 31 information is suitable for modification, the conflict monitoring entity 30 causes 32 customer 12 to be advised. In the circumstance mentioned above, this may be done by 33 sending a text message, or a voice message to customer 12's cell phone 34 (communication entity 14,) 5 minutes before her meeting, asking her "would you like 1 to change your communication routing information''. In this manner, customer 12 will 2 have the option to configure her communication routing information such that calls 3 are routed to another communication entity, or are routed directly to her voice mail, 4 while she is in her meeting.

6 Example 4 - Modification based on a Device that can't be disturbed 7 In this example, let us assume that customer 12 is running errands around town, and 8 as such has configured her "find me/follow me" feature such that her communication 9 routing information specifies that any incoming calls destined for her work phone (i.e.
communication device 143) or her home phone (i.e. communication device 142) 11 should be forwarded to her cellular phone (i.e. communication device 141).
In the case 12 where there is no answer on her cell phone after three rings, then these calls should be 13 routed to her home phone (i.e. communication device 142), and if after three rings at 14 her home phone 142 there is still no pick-up, the calls should be forwarded to her voice mail. As such, the communication routing information specifies that the first 16 termination device to which incoming calls destined for either her work phone (i.e.
17 communication device 143) or her home phone (i.e. communication device 142) are to 18 be routed to, is her cell phone (i.e. communication device 141).

In the afternoon, customer 12 visits a friend in the hospital, and thus turns her cell 21 phone off in accordance with hospital policy. As such, all incoming communications 22 to either her work phone (i.e. communication device 143), her cell phone (i.e.
23 communication device 141), and her home phone (i.e. communication device 142) will 24 be sent first to her cell phone (which she won't pick up since the phone is off), then to her home phone, and then to her voice mail. For anyone attempting to reach customer 26 12, it is a long time to wait before the call is forwarded to voice mail.

28 Fortunately, conflict monitoring entity 30 is monitoring the behavior information 29 associated to customer 12, and is processing this information, as well as the communication routing information, on the basis of the modification information 31 stored in memory 36. For example, when customer 12 turns off her cell phone 32 (communication device 141), the behavior information associated with her cellular 33 phone, which is being monitored by the conflict monitoring entity 30, is indicative 34 that the cell phone 14, has been turned off. As shown in Figure 4, condition 408 1 contained within the modification information indicates that when customer 12 is not 2 suitable for being disturbed by the first termination device, then the communication 3 routing information may be suitable for modification (result 410). Given that the 4 conflict monitoring entity 30 is aware that the first termination device specified in the 5 communication routing information is customer 12's cell phone (communication 6 device l41) which is currently off and thus can't be disturbed, the conflict monitoring 7 entity 30 will determine that customer 12's communication routing information may 8 be suitable for modification (result 410).

10 As mentioned above, in certain circumstances, instead of advising the customer that 11 the communication routing information is suitable for being modified, the conflict 12 monitoring entity 30 may simply proceed to cause the customer's communication 13 routing information to be modified. For example, in the circumstance indicated above, 14 wherein customer 12 has turned off her cellular phone 141, and is not in the vicinity of 15 any of her other communication devices 142, 143, 144, the conflict monitoring entity 16 30 is incapable of advising customer 12 that her communication routing information 17 may be suitable for modification. In such a circumstance, the conflict monitoring 18 entity 30 will simply cause the communication routing information to be modified.

20 In the example outlined above, the conflict monitoring entity 30 may simply modify 21 the communication routing information such that all incoming calls to any one of 22 customer 12's cell phone, home phone or work phone are immediately routed to 23 customer 12's voice mail. Therefore, in this embodiment, all parties may benefit from 24 the conflict monitoring feature contemplated herein without needing to subscribe 25 thereto, since a calling party who calls customer 12's home phone does not have to 26 wait for the call to be routed to a variety of different communication devices before 27 being routed to voice mail.

29 The circumstances under which the conflict monitoring entity 30 is authorized to 30 simply proceed to modify the customer's communication routing information can be 31 stored in the modification information in memory 36. These circumstances can be 32 predetermined circumstances set by the service provider or circumstances that are 33 configured by the customer.

1 As described above, in accordance with a non-limiting example of implementation, 2 the conflict monitoring entity 30 is further operative to determine a suggestion as to 3 how to modify the communication routing information, when it has been determined 4 that the configuration information is suitable for modification. This suggestion can be provided to the customer when the customer is advised that the communication 6 routing information is suitable for being modified.

8 In accordance with a non-limiting example, the conflict monitoring entity 30 is able to 9 determine a suggestion as to how to modify the communication routing information on the basis of criteria contained within the modification information. As such, by 11 processing the communication routing information as well as the behavior 12 information on the basis of the modification information stored in the memory unit 13 36, the conflict monitoring entity 30 is able to determine a suggestion as to how to 14 modify the communication routing information.
16 For example, the suggestions could be determined as follows:
17 1. When the customer originates an outgoing call from a communication device that 18 is not the first termination device, the suggestion will be that the communication 19 routing information is modified such that the communication device on which the customer has originated an outgoing call becomes the first termination device.
21 2. When the customer is in proximity to an associated communication device that 22 has a cheaper cost structure than the first termination device, the suggestion will 23 be that the communication routing information is modified such that the 24 communication device with the cheaper (or cheapest) cost structure becomes the first termination device.
26 3. When the customer is not in proximity to the first termination device, the 27 suggestion will be that the communication routing information is modified such 28 that a communication device that is in proximity to the customer becomes the first 29 termination device.

4. When the first termination device cannot or should not be disturbed, the 31 suggestion will be that the communication routing information is modified such 32 that voice mail (or another communication entity) becomes the first termination 33 device.

I It is to be understood that these examples of ways in which the conflict monitoring 2 entity 30 can determine a suggestion as to how to modify the communication routing 3 information are presented for illustrative purposes only and are not to be considered 4 limiting in any respect.

6 In addition to the above examples, the subscriber can configure the conflict 7 monitoring feature such as to identify which communication device they would like to 8 use under a given set of circumstances. In this manner, the subscriber is able to 9 configure the modification information stored in the memory 36 such that for a given set of circumstances, the conflict monitoring entity 30 will determine a suggested 11 modification that has been set by the subscriber. For example, the subscriber can 12 configure the modification information such that whenever the subscriber is in the 13 vicinity of his/her work computer, all calls to the subscriber's cell phone, VoIP phone 14 and work phone, will be routed to his/her work phone. As such, the information contained in the modification information may be as follows:
16 5. When the customer is in proximity to his/her workplace computer, the suggestion 17 will be that the communication routing information is modified such that the 18 work place computer becomes the first termination device to which calls destined 19 for all of customer 12's communication devices are to be routed; or6. when customer 12 is in proximity to an associated communication device that is 21 preferred by customer 12 (such as a communication device with speaker phone or 22 cordless hand set), the suggestion will be that the communication routing 23 information is modified such that the preferred communication device becomes 24 the first termination device to which calls destined for all of customer 12's communication devices are to be routed.

27 In an alternative embodiment, in addition to monitoring behavior information, the 28 conflict monitoring entity 30 may also monitor location information associated to the 29 subscriber. The location information associated to a subscriber would be indicative of the location of customer 12. The conflict monitoring entity 30 can monitor this 31 location information in a variety of ways. For example, assuming that customer 12 32 generally carries her cellular phone (communication device 141) with her, then the 33 conflict monitoring entity 30 can obtain location information associated to customer 34 12 based on the location of the cellular phone (communication device 141).
This 1 information can be obtained via GPS technology, cellular triangulation, or any other 2 method possible, and can be provided to the conflict monitoring entity 30 via the 3 network portion 21 and the switching/routing entity 24. For example, for customer 12 4 who subscribes to the conflict monitoring feature, the wireless base station and mobile switching center may be operative to periodically provide the conflict monitoring 6 entity 30 with the cellular triangulation coordinates of communication device 141.

8 The conflict monitoring device 30 is operative to process the communication routing 9 information and the location information on the basis of the modification information, in the manner described above, in order to determine whether the communication 11 routing information may be suitable for modification.

13 Monitoring the location information associated with customer 12 is different and 14 much more complex than monitoring the behavior information, as described above throughout the specification. For example, the behavior information described above 16 relies on a user's presence'at a given communication device, or the use of one or more 17 of the communication devices by the user, among other things. In contrast, monitoring 18 the location information, as used herein, requires using GPS, cellular triangulation, or 19 another form of location tracking technology.

21 In accordance with a non-limiting example of implementation, the conflict monitoring 22 entity 30 may be operative to monitor both the behavior information and the location 23 information associated to a customer in order to determine whether the 24 communication routing information is suitable for modification.

26 Those skilled in the art will appreciate that, in some embodiments, certain 27 functionality of a given component described herein (including the conflict 28 monitoring entity 30) may be implemented as pre-programmed hardware or firmware 29 elements (e.g., application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), electrically erasable programmable read-only memories (EEPROMs), etc.) or other related elements. In 31 other embodiments, a given component described herein (including the conflict 32 monitoring entity 30) may comprise a processor having access to a code memory 33 which stores program instructions for operation of the processor to implement 34 functionality of that given component. The program instructions may be stored on a 1 medium which is fixed, tangible, and readable directly by the given component (e.g., 2 removable diskette, CD-ROM, ROM, fixed disk, USB key, etc.). Alternatively, the 3 program instructions may be stored remotely but transmittable to the given component 4 via a modem or other interface device connected to a network over a transmission medium. The transmission medium may be either a tangible medium (e.g., optical or 6 analog communications lines) or a medium implemented using wireless techniques 7 (e.g., microwave, infrared or other wireless transmission schemes).

9 While specific embodiments of the present invention have been described and illustrated, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that further modifications and 11 variations can be made without departing from the scope of the invention as defined 12 in the appended claims.

Claims

1. A method implemented by a network entity, said method comprising:
- accessing communication routing information associated to a party, the communication routing information being indicative of at least one termination device to which incoming communications for the party are to be routed;
- monitoring behavior information associated to the party;
- processing the communication routing information and the behavior information at least in part on the basis of modification information in an attempt to determine if said communication routing information is suitable for modification;
- causing the party to be advised when said processing has determined that the communication routing information is suitable for modification.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the at least one termination device to which incoming communications for the party are to be routed, includes at least one first termination device to which incoming communications are to be routed.

3. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein the behavior information is indicative of a communication device from which the party has made an outgoing call, the modification information being indicative that the communication routing information is suitable for modification when the communication device from which the party has made an outgoing call is not the at least one first termination device specified in the communication routing information.

4. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein the behavior information is indicative that the party has logged on to a communication device, the modification information being indicative that the communication routing information is suitable for modification when the communication device is not the at least one first termination device specified in the communication routing information.

5. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein the behavior information is indicative that the party has logged on to a communication device, the modification information being indicative that the communication routing information is suitable for modification when a communication device in proximity to a location where said party has logged on to the communication device is not the at least one termination device specified in the communication routing information.

6. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein the behavior information is indicative that a communication device associated with the party shouldn't be disturbed, the modification information being indicative that the communication routing information is suitable for modification when the communication device that shouldn't be disturbed is the at least one first termination device specified in said communication routing information.

7. A method as defined in claim 2, further comprising:
- determining a suggestion as to how to modify said communication routing information; and - providing said suggestion to the party.

8. A method as defined in claim 7, wherein when the party originates an outgoing call from a communication device that is not the at least one first termination device, the suggestion being to modify the communication routing information such that the communication device on which the customer has originated an outgoing call becomes one of the at least one first termination devices specified in the communication routing information.

9. A method as defined in claim 7, wherein when the party is in proximity to an associated communication device that has a cheaper cost structure than the at least one first termination device, the suggestion being to modify the communication routing information such that the communication device with the cheaper cost structure becomes one of the at least one first termination devices specified in the communication routing information.

10. A method as defined in claim 7, wherein when the party is not in proximity to the at least one first termination device, the suggestion being to modify the communication routing information such that a communication device that is in proximity to the customer becomes one of the at least one first termination devices specified in the communication routing information.

11. A method as defined in claim 7, wherein under a given set of circumstances the suggestion being to modify the communication routing information such that an incoming communication for the party is routed to an alternative termination device that has been identified as being a more desirable termination device under the given set of circumstance.

12. A method as defined in claim 7, wherein when a user of the at least one first termination device should not be disturbed, the suggestion being to modify the communication routing information such that an incoming communication for the party is routed to voice mail.

13. A method as defined in claim 7, further comprising:
- requesting authorization from the party to modify the communication routing information in accordance with said suggestion provided to the party; and - modifying the communication routing information in accordance with said suggestion provided to the party upon authorization received from the party.

14. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the party is advised via an instant text message when said processing has determined that the communication routing information is suitable for modification.

15. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the party is advised via IVR when said processing has determined that the communication routing information is suitable for modification.

16. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the party is advised via email when said processing has determined that the communication routing information is suitable for modification.

17. A softswitch configured to implement the method defined in claim 1.

18. A network entity comprising:
- an interface operative for:
- accessing communication routing information associated to a party, the communication routing information being indicative of at least one termination device to which incoming communications for the party are to be routed;
- monitoring behavior information associated to the party;
- a processing entity operative for:
- processing the communication routing information and the behavior information at least in part on the basis of modification information in an attempt to determine if said communication routing information is suitable for modification;
- causing the party to be advised when said processing has determined that the communication routing information is suitable for modification.

19. A network entity as defined in claim 18, wherein the at least one termination device to which incoming communications for the party are to be routed, includes at least one first termination device to which incoming communications are to be routed.

20. A network entity as defined in claim 19, wherein the behavior information is indicative of a communication device from which the party has made an outgoing call, the modification information being indicative that the communication routing information is suitable for modification when the communication device from which the party has made an outgoing call is not the at least one first termination device specified in the communication routing information.

21. A network entity as defined in claim 19, wherein the behavior information is indicative that the party has logged on to a communication device, the modification information being indicative that the communication routing information is suitable for modification when the communication device is not the at least one first termination device specified in the communication routing information.

22. A network entity as defined in claim 19, wherein the behavior information is indicative that the party has logged on to a communication device, the modification information being indicative that the communication routing information is suitable for modification when a communication device in proximity to a location where said party has logged on to the communication device is not the at least one first termination device specified in the communication routing information.

23. A network entity as defined in claim 19, wherein the behavior information is indicative that a communication device associated with the party shouldn't be disturbed, the modification information being indicative that the communication routing information is suitable for modification when the communication device that shouldn't be disturbed is the at least one first termination device specified in said communication routing information.

24. A network entity as defined in claim 19, wherein the processing entity is further operative for:
- determining a suggestion as to how to modify said communication routing information; and - providing said suggestion to the party.

25. A network entity as defined in claim 24, wherein when the party originates an outgoing call from a communication device that is not the at least one first termination device, the suggestion being to modify the communication routing information such that the communication device on which the customer has originated an outgoing call becomes one of the at least one first termination devices specified in the communication routing information.

26. A network entity as defined in claim 24, wherein when the party is in proximity to an associated communication device that has a cheaper cost structure than the at least one first termination device, the suggestion being to modify the communication routing information such that the communication device with the cheaper cost structure becomes one of the at least one first termination devices specified in the communication routing information.

27. A network entity as defined in claim 24, wherein when the party is not in proximity to the at least one first termination device, the suggestion being to modify the communication routing information such that a communication device that is in proximity to the customer becomes one of the at least one first termination devices specified in the communication routing information.

28. A network entity as defined in claim 24, wherein under a given set of circumstances the suggestion being to modify the communication routing information such that an incoming communication for the party is routed to an alternative termination device that has been identified as being a more desirable termination device under the given set of circumstance.

29. A network entity as defined in claim 24, wherein when a user of the at least one first termination device should not be disturbed, the suggestion being to modify the communication routing information such that an incoming communication for the user is routed to voice mail.

30. A network entity as defined in claim 24, further comprising:
- requesting authorization from the party to modify the communication routing information in accordance with said suggestion provided to the party; and - modifying the communication routing information in accordance with said suggestion provided to the party upon authorization received from the party.

31. A network entity as defined in claim 19, wherein the party is advised via an instant text message when said processing has determined that the communication routing information is suitable for modification.

32. A network entity as defined in claim 19, wherein the party is advised via IVR
when said processing has determined that the communication routing information is suitable for modification.

33. A network entity as defined in claim 19, wherein the party is advised via email when said processing has determined that the communication routing information is suitable for modification.

34. A computer-readable storage medium comprising a program element for execution by a processing unit to implement a modification entity, said program element comprising:
- first program code for accessing communication routing information associated to a party, the communication routing information being indicative of at least one termination device to which incoming communications for the party are to be routed;
- second program code for monitoring behavior information associated to the party;
- third program code for processing the communication routing information and the behavior information at least in part on the basis of modification information in an attempt to determine the suitability of modifying said communication routing information; and - fourth program code for causing the party to be advised when said processing has determined that the communication routing information is suitable for modification.

35. A method implemented by a network entity, said method comprising:
- accessing communication routing information associated to a party, the communication routing information being indicative of at least one termination device to which incoming communications for the party are to be routed;
- monitoring location information associated to the party;
- processing the communication routing information and the location information at least in part on the basis of modification information in an attempt to determine if said communication routing information is suitable for modification;
- causing the party to be advised when said processing has determined that the communication routing information is suitable for modification.

36. A method as defined in claim 35, wherein the at least one termination device to which incoming communications for the party are to be routed, includes at least one first termination device to which incoming communications are to be routed.

37. A method as defined in claim 36, wherein the location information is indicative of a geographical position of the party, the modification information being indicative that the communication routing information is suitable for being modified when the geographical position of the party is not in proximity to the at least one first termination device specified in said communication routing information.

38. A method as defined in claim 36, wherein the location information is indicative of a geographical position of the party, the modification information being indicative that the communication routing information is suitable for modification when the party is in proximity to an alternative communication device having a cheaper cost structure than the at least one first termination device specified in said communication routing information.

39. A method as defined in claim 36, wherein monitoring the location information associated to the party is performed by monitoring one of GPS coordinates and cellular triangulation coordinates.

40. A network entity comprising:
- an interface operative for:
- accessing communication routing information associated to a party, the communication routing information being indicative of at least one termination device to which incoming communications for the party are to be routed;
- monitoring location information associated to the party;
- a processing entity operative for:

- processing the communication routing information and the location information at least in part on the basis of modification information in an attempt to determine if said communication routing information is suitable for modification;

causing the party to be advised when said processing has determined that the communication routing information is suitable for modification.