On Wednesday, June 19, 2002, at 02:02 , Ben Hutchings wrote:
>> heard that the Japanese are discussing about selecting networks
>> on a per call basis, and maybe different network technologies,
>> ... roaming without a home network?
>
> That's all very well if you only want to make calls. But how can you
> receive calls without signing-on to a network in advance?
ZEBRA roaming can do that.
Basically, when you sign on to a visited network, you are automatically
being assigned a local account and with it a new temporary local number.
After that you get a message to tell you what your temporary number is.
Then there are two different ways to get your callers to be able to
reach you:
1 - automatic change of your voicemail greeting to announce the temp
number.
so if someone calls you on your regular number, they get to hear the
announcement and they can then call you directly. This doesn't require
any cooperation by your service provider.
2 - a message is being sent back to your service provider and a call
forwarding service kicks in automatically to forward all incoming calls
to the temporary number.
Service provider can be your home network, a personal number service (ie
07000 numbers) or even your fixed line provider. So if someone calls you
on your regular number, personal number or home/office number, the call
will be forwarded to the temporary number. This does require cooperation
by your service provider.
This is all automatic and transparent - all you'd have to do is switch
your phone on.
For more details you can check out http://www.espacenet.com, and type in
the patent number WO9894848 into the patent database search engine.
kind regards
benjamin
Received on Wed Jun 19 07:58:43 2002