A directory assistance system may share information (e.g., residential listing information and/or commercial listing information) with a user (e.g., caller). The directory assistance system may operate through a voice response of the user to a prompt of the directory assistance system (e.g., responds to a human voice of the user). To gain access to the information, the user may need to pay a fee for access (e.g., $1.25).
In addition, an entity (e.g., a large company, a VoIP provider, a phone company, etc.) may offer the directory assistance system as a service to their constituents (e.g., employees, users, customers, etc.) for free. However, the entity may need to pay a provider of the directory assistance system a fee for each constituent routed to the directory assistance system. The fee may be expensive, because the entity may need to pay thousands of dollars a month to the provider (e.g., Tell Me® Business Search, OnStar®, etc.). The entity may not be able to profitably operate because the fee may exceed revenues. As such, the entity may incur significant business expense in maintaining the directory assistance system.
Furthermore, if the entity is the phone company (e.g., Sprint®, AT&T®, etc.), the entity may have a collection of unused numbers (e.g., an unassigned number, a disconnected number, etc.). A message indicating that the disconnected number (e.g., a previously assigned but now abandoned number) is no longer in service may be played on messages that are unused in compliance with a governmental regulation (e.g., a Federal Communications Commission rule, a federal law, a state law, etc.). An assignee may no longer pay the phone company to use the disconnected number. Playing the message indicating that the disconnected number is no longer in service may be expensive for the phone company when played on millions of disconnected numbers because there may be no way of charging the assignee for use of the disconnected number.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds