HK1030119A - Method and device for interaction - Google Patents

Description

Method and apparatus for interaction

Technical Field

The present invention relates generally to methods and apparatus for, for example, market research, polls, or communicating with multiple users in a telecommunications network, such as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).

Background

Newspapers, news agencies, radio and television editorial rooms, for example, often wish to perform polls quickly after a dispute lecture by a major politician. In order to be able to present the results of such polls to the public, the method of conducting the polls must provide some basic statistical reliability. In order to provide some basic statistical reliability, the opinion of thousands of people selected in a manner that can represent the entire population must be queried. It is not possible for a reporter or even the entire news agency to complete the job within an acceptable time period. Therefore, specialized companies have appeared which are engaged only in polls, market surveys, or the like. Because the methods of conducting polls are traditionally labor intensive, polls are very expensive and cannot be conducted often.

Attempts have been made to provide systems designed to improve the labor intensive processes described above. Unfortunately, these systems are very expensive and require the user to provide a large number of separate telephone lines. Such a system can be found in W O88/05239.

Advertisers are constantly improving the way in which they advertise so that they can only contact their intended target group. One reason is that advertising is very expensive and often annoying to others outside the intended user group to which the advertised product/service is directed. Different approaches have been investigated to provide better targeting, so advertisers do not waste money in, for example, providing free diaper samples to a family without babies. Some of these systems that have been developed require expensive and cumbersome equipment to distribute/broadcast advertisements and, in order to be able to communicate with a target group, require special receiver equipment for such advertisements to be available in the homes of the intended group. Examples of such systems can be found in U S5515098 and W O94/30000.

Another example of how an advertiser might contact a new user group is to trade a free or subsidized phone call for having the advertiser interrupt the conversation at regular intervals. Such an example can be found, for example, in U S5448625.

Summary of The Invention

It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel telecommunication network/system method and a novel telecommunication network/system, in particular a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).

It is another object of the present invention to provide a telecommunications network/system service.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a method and an apparatus which can deliver announcements/advertisements fully automatically to a large number of users of a telecommunication network/system, in particular the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), in a short time.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a method and an apparatus which enable a full automatic polling or market investigation of a large number of users of a telecommunication network/system, in particular the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), in a short time.

The above object is achieved according to the present invention by a method of providing an automatic interactive service in a telecommunication network and by a telecommunication network capable of providing an automatic interactive service. Interaction can take many different forms, including, for example, playing information to a listening user and making reminders/questions to the user to answer. The telecommunications network is suitably a telecommunications network in which a large proportion of the users have telephones connected to the telecommunications network, such a network sometimes being referred to as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). It is assumed that a subscriber of the telecommunication network has some kind of communication means with which the subscriber can communicate with the telecommunication network. The communication device is preferably a telephone or a mobile telephone, but may also be other devices with which the user can communicate with the telecommunication network.

A customer may request an automatic interaction with a group of users of the telecommunication network, i.e. a target group, such as an advertisement in the form of one or more information or a market survey. The target group of users is preferably selected according to predetermined criteria such as age, habits (e.g., buying habits) and/or residential areas. The subscribers of the target group are dialed and automatically interacted with through the telecommunication network. It is recorded via the network which users can be reached under certain predetermined conditions, which users at contact actually completed the interaction, and which users did not. The results of the automated transaction are reported to the customer.

The above object is achieved according to the present invention by a method of providing a telecommunication service enabling an automatic interaction with a plurality of predetermined subscribers in a telecommunication network over the telecommunication network upon a request from a customer to the telecommunication network. The method comprises a plurality of steps. In a first step, a list of users with whom an automatic interaction is to be performed is determined in a control node of the telecommunications network. In a second step, the control node controlling the switching node of the telecommunications network dials the subscribers of the determined list at one or more predetermined occasions to form communication lines with the subscribers of the determined list. Preferably, said communication line is formed between the subscriber concerned and the switching node. No communication line is formed to the customer. In a third step, the individual subscribers interact via the switching node when the communication line is formed. In the fourth step, it is determined whether the interaction with the respective user who has started the interaction is completed. Finally, in a fifth step, the results of the interactions with the users in the determined list are reported to the customer.

The interaction is preferably an advertisement/announcement providing information to the individual user or a market survey providing one or more questions to the individual user and recording responses from the individual user.

One predetermined opportunity when to dial a user is to detect that the user is on-hook (i.e., the user has just finished, for example, the previous communication session he started). Therefore, there is no need to attempt to establish contact with the busy tone line. Another predetermined opportunity for when to dial the user is one of several time periods of the day.

If machine-generated output, such as a fax or modem, is detected while the communication line is being formed, the interaction is preferably terminated immediately and the user is marked in the list as unavailable. It is preferable to mark in the user list the user who detected that the interaction has been completed for the gifting. The gift is preferably free phone time in the telecommunication network that bills the customer. The detection and/or amount of completed user interaction is the basis for billing the customer.

The above object is also achieved by a method of providing a wireless communication service enabling an automatic interaction with a plurality of predetermined subscribers in a telecommunication network over the telecommunication network upon a request from a customer to the telecommunication network. The method comprises a plurality of steps. In a first step, a control node in the telecommunications network, which controls a switching node of the telecommunications network, dials up the predetermined subscriber at one or more predetermined occasions to establish contact with one or more predetermined subscribers. In a second step, when the switching node establishes contact with one or more subscribers, interaction is performed with the subscribers who have established contact within the telecommunications network. In a third step, it is determined with which of the predetermined users that have started the interaction is completed, so that together with the interaction a result of the interaction is formed. In a final fourth step, the results of the interaction with the intended user are reported to the customer.

The above object is also achieved by a method of automatically interacting with a plurality of predetermined subscribers in a telecommunications network over the telecommunications network upon a request from a customer to the telecommunications network. The method comprises the following steps. In a first step, a control node in the telecommunications network, which controls a switching node of the telecommunications network, dials up the predetermined subscriber at one or more predetermined occasions to establish contact with one or more predetermined subscribers. In a second step, when the switching node establishes contact with one or more subscribers, interaction is performed with the subscribers who have established contact within the telecommunications network. In a third step, results of the interaction with the predetermined user are formed. In a final fourth step, the results of the interaction with the intended user are reported to the customer.

According to the invention the above object is also achieved by a telecommunication network enabling an automatic interaction with a plurality of predetermined subscribers in the telecommunication network over the telecommunication network upon a request from a customer to the telecommunication network. The telecommunication network comprises a control node, preferably a service control node (SCP), a switching node, preferably a service switching node (SSP), interaction means, determination means and reporting means. The list of users to interact with is determined by the control node. The control node may use internal databases in the telecommunications network and/or the control node and/or databases outside the telecommunications network. The database may be, for example, an electronic phonebook, a credit card database, or the like. The switching node dials the users in the determined list at one or more predetermined occasions under the control of a control node controlling the switching node to form a communication line with the users in the determined list. Preferably, said communication line is formed between the concerned subscriber and the switching node. No communication line is formed to the customers or between the customers. The interaction means interact with the respective subscribers with whom the switching node has formed a communication line. The determining means determines whether or not the interaction of each user with whom the interaction has been started is completed. The reporting means reports the results of the interactions with the users in the determined list to the client.

The interaction is preferably an advertisement or a market survey. If the interaction is an advertisement, the telecommunication network preferably comprises means for providing information to the respective user. If the interaction is a market survey, the telecommunication network preferably comprises means for providing one or more questions to each user and means for recording responses to the questions from the users.

In some embodiments, the telecommunications network preferably includes means for detecting when a user hangs up. In these embodiments, the predetermined opportunity to dial the user is when the user hangs up. In other embodiments, the predetermined opportunity to dial the user is one of several predetermined time periods of the day.

The telecommunications network preferably further comprises means for detecting machine-generated outputs. Thus, if machine-generated output is detected while the communication line is being formed, it is preferable to terminate the interaction immediately and mark the user in the list as unavailable.

It is preferable to mark in the user list the user who detected that the interaction has been completed for the gifting. The gift is preferably free phone time in the telecommunication network that bills the customer. The detection and/or amount of completed user interaction is the basis for billing the customer.

The above object is also achieved by an arrangement in a telecommunication network for automatically interacting with a plurality of predetermined subscribers in the telecommunication network over the telecommunication network upon a request from a customer to such an arrangement in the telecommunication network. The apparatus comprises a dialing means, an interacting means, a determining means and a means for reporting. The dialing means dials the predetermined subscriber at one or more predetermined occasions to establish contact between the apparatus and the one or more predetermined subscribers in the telecommunications network. The interaction means interacts with one or more predetermined users who have established contact. The determining means determines which of the interactions that have started have been completed to form the result of the interaction together with the interaction. The means for reporting reports the result of the interaction with the predetermined user to the client

By providing a service for automatic interaction with a plurality of subscribers in a telecommunications network, a number of advantages over prior art systems are obtained in the telecommunications network. Since the above-mentioned services are provided within a telecommunication network, no additional subscriber lines are required as are external devices connected to the telecommunication network. If the telecommunication network is a so-called intelligent network, little or no new hardware is required for providing this service. The service is flexible and can meet the requirements of low cost, high efficiency, flexibility of use and ease of subscribing/requesting such services. Methods for billing customers already exist in telecommunication networks, and it is easy in telecommunication networks to provide a gift in the form of a free call to a participating subscriber, the gift being billed directly to the customer. Such services may be purchased and determined and then initiated, modified or cancelled at the customer's discretion at a predetermined time, for example by simple telephone dialing. In all cases or only for some cases, subscribing/requesting such services to access, initiating, cancelling and/or modifying such services is limited to the scope of users having PIN (password) codes. The customer may have entered the PIN code itself. The PIN code is used for security reasons and can be submitted via a telephone or a computer accessing the above-mentioned services. The above-described automated interactive services may be used for advertising, promotion, opinion measurement and market research for a selected group of users. Said services may also be used for advertising to a large group of people only. For example, a meeting is cancelled because of bad weather, so that this can be communicated to a large number of people in a short time by means of such an automatic interactive service. The service may report which users did not respond to the customer and the customer may use a special approach to contact a small number of people.

Brief Description of Drawings

The present invention is described in detail below for purposes of explanation and not limitation, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of one embodiment of the system of the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows a flow chart of the method of the present invention;

FIG. 3 shows a flow chart of how a method of the present invention contacts a user;

FIG. 4 shows a flow chart of how a method of the present invention interacts with a user;

fig. 5 shows a flow chart of how another method of the present invention interacts with a user.

Detailed Description

To illustrate the system of the present invention, certain examples of the use of the system are described below with reference to fig. 1-5.

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of one embodiment of the system of the present invention. A telecommunications network 120, such as a Public Switched Telecommunications Network (PSTN), of the present invention is shown with subscribers 110 and 117 connected to the network 120. The telecommunication network 120 of the present invention preferably comprises a switching node 150, which is preferably a Service Switching Point (SSP) and is controlled by a control node 160, the control node 160 preferably being a Service Control Point (SCP). The telecommunications network of the present invention may optionally further include a data node 170, which is preferably a data switching point (SDP). If desired, the switching node 150 forms communication lines between subscribers through one or more optional Local Exchanges (LE)131 and 133 under the control of the control node 160. The telecommunication network 120 also preferably comprises a device for recording and playing notifications (AST-DR)141, a device for text-to-speech conversion (speech synthesis) 142 and optionally a device for speech recognition 143. These devices 141, 142, 143 are preferably connected to the exchange node 150 as shown in fig. 1 or in some embodiments to a control node 160.

Other networks 122, such as the Internet, may be connected to the network 120 through the interface 121. An external database, such as a credit card company database, may be connected to the network 120, for example, through an interface 123 as shown. The interface may also be connected to the local exchange 131 and 133 depending on the type and location of the external database. According to the invention, a customer wishing to automatically interact with a plurality of users 110 and 117 of a telecommunication network 120 may subscribe to such services from the telecommunication network 120. The interaction with the user can take many different forms, such as playing customer information or playing customer questions and recording user responses. The one-way communication between two parties, one of which actively conveys information and the other of which passively listens, and the two-way communication between two parties, both of which are active, are referred to as interactions between the two parties.

The automatic interaction desired by the customer may be, for example, a market survey, a poll, or a different form of advertisement. The client 100 is typically not interested in such automatic interaction with all users 110 and 117 of the telecommunication network 120, but only with a plurality of predetermined users, i.e. target groups, selected from all users, said pre-selection being based on one or several criteria. Criteria for selecting a target group of users may be, for example, by year, gender, residential area, habits such as buying habits, usage of credit or other cards (e.g., library debit cards), family status, social status, income, and/or brand of automobile. The number of users in the selected target group may be limited by only one or a few criteria or have a predetermined upper limit. The target group may also be composed of a combination of a plurality of randomly selected predetermined users. The telecommunications network 120 uses internal and/or external databases 124 in the control nodes 160 and/or data nodes 170 to group into target groups. This is preferably done by the control node 160 or under supervision/control of the control node 160. In some cases, the customer may provide a list of users that constitute the target group.

The customer 100 may place its order for the service on the network 120, for example, through the computer 101, through the mobile phone 104, or through the phone 103. As described above, in some embodiments, this is allowed after the customer gives the PIN code for security reasons. The use of a PIN code is only a selective use for the owner of the service and/or is used by a request from the client. Computer 101 may be connected to network 120, directly to, for example, data node 170, indirectly through interface 102 to, for example, local exchange 131 (as shown), or indirectly through an external network 122, such as the internet, to local exchange 131.

Said automatic interactive services can be divided for example into three basic types. The first type, the standard type, is predetermined and cannot be changed at all by the client, who can only subscribe to or cancel this type of service. Preferably, the network 120 of the present invention provides for a variety of criteria, such as polls with different statistical confidence levels, to be automatically interacted with, which may be booked at different prices. The second type, semi-custom, preferably allows selection of some standard target group such as the residential area of the customer and may record the announcements used in the interaction.

The third basic type, the custom type, is fully programmable. The exact composition of the target group or perhaps the number of attempts that the customer 100 provides his own list, establishes contact should be made, the number of feeds the user who completes the interaction should receive if there are any gifts, how the results should be reported, etc. may all be planned by the customer.

The first two basic types, standard and semi-custom, can be ordered, activated and/or cancelled, preferably by telephone 103 or mobile telephone 104. Of course, computer 101 or hand-written orders may also be used. A simple natural choice to subscribe to the third basic type is to use a computer on which all choices can be selected and typed. As one example, periods of interaction may be specified and prevented for certain periods, such as between 23.00 and 07.00, without disturbing the user at night. In this case, of course, either the telephone 103 or the mobile telephone 104 may be used, but the telephone 103 or the mobile telephone 104 generally limits the customer to only enabling and cancelling the service and may alter the announcement (alone or in conjunction with only a few automatic announcement interactions) if appropriate. The automated interactive service may be used by customers who have previously agreed with network 120 and/or any user 110 of network 120 and 117.

When the customer 100 subscribes to the automated interactive service, the control node 160 instructs the switching node 150 to establish contact with the users in the target group. Contacts with users in the target community are established in parallel, partially in parallel, or sequentially according to the size of the target community, the capacity of the network, and/or the time requirements to complete the automated interaction. The control node 160 may instruct the switching node 150 to use a device for recording and playing notifications (AST-DR)141, a device for text-to-speech conversion (speech synthesis) 142 and/or a device for speech recognition 143, where appropriate. If machine-generated output, such as a modem or fax, is detected while in contact with the user, the user is removed from the target community or marked as unavailable. If the user is not available within a predetermined number of attempts, the user is removed from the target group or marked as unavailable. Preferably, the automated interactive service no longer attempts to establish contact with the user after contact has been established.

The network 120 also keeps track of which users in the actual target group have been contacted within set time limits and which of these users have finally completed the interaction. In order to bill customers and give away to the relevant users, it is important to track which users in the target group have eventually completed the interaction. The gifts may be in the form of free communication time in the network 120 that bills the customer directly.

The different blocks of the network 120 should only be seen as functional blocks, having no relation to the physical appearance of the telecommunication network 120.

Fig. 2 shows a flow chart of the inventive method, which is preferably implemented in the control node 160 and/or the switching node of the telecommunication network 120 of fig. 1. In a first step 210 of the method, a customer makes a request for an interactive service. In step 220, a list of users in the telecommunications network constituting the target group is determined. The list may be provided by the customer or may be compiled from an internal database and/or an external database upon request by the customer. After the client makes the request and identifies the target group, the network begins establishing contact with the users in the target group at a predetermined opportunity in step 230. If the customer has initiated the automatic interactive service, for example, by a simple telephone call, the user may initiate the automatic interactive service at step 210 or at a later time, simply at step 230. The customer may subscribe and determine the service in advance and then initiate the service at the appropriate time. Steps 230 through 280 merely represent what is done with the users in the target group and, as previously described, this work may be performed in parallel, partially in parallel, or sequentially, as shown in the flow chart.

When contact is established with the users of the target group in step 230, the interaction begins in step 240. Upon ending the contact with the relevant user, a determination is made in step 250 as to whether the interaction is complete or whether the relevant user has prematurely disconnected the contact. If the interaction is completed, the relevant user is marked in the list as having completed the interaction in step 260; this information may be used to provide a gift to the user. If incomplete interactions are determined in step 250, the user is marked in the list as an incomplete interaction in step 270 and/or the relevant user is deleted from the list and/or marked in a specific deactivation list, for example to prevent the user from appearing in any target group in the (near) future.

The test step 280 determines if there are any more users in the target group who may be automatically interacting objects, if any, and the process restarts at step 230. The target group may contain 50000 users, but the customer's request is to only make 4000 full automatic interactions, the verification step 280 can of course count the number of successful interactions and stop at 4000. If there are no more interactions to be performed or the target population is empty, a report is composed to the customer and passed to the customer in a manner that conforms to the customer's request in step 290. The report may include, for example, the number of successful interactions, the results of market research or civil surveys, the total cost of the automated interaction service, and/or a list of users who should send a gift. The report may be provided to the customer in a format requested by the user by facsimile, telephone voice synthesis, mail, email, and/or transmission to a computer or the like.

Figure 3 shows a flow chart of how a method of the present invention establishes contact with a user. The flow chart of fig. 3 is a possible extension of step 230 in fig. 2. In step 331, communication with the still-connected users belonging to the target group is tried at a predetermined timing. The predetermined time is one of several times of day when the communication attempt is made. The predetermined opportunity may also be when the user hangs up, i.e., when the user has just completed a telephone conversation. This situation can be detected and therefore, multiple attempts are not necessary. When a user hangs up, the user is at home and awake unless the user is an on-hook machine. The steps for handling this are explained below. To increase the chance of not being a machine such as an answering machine, the predetermined opportunity may be when the user hangs up after the user initiates a call/phone conversation.

In step 332, it is determined whether contact is fully established, and if not, it is determined in step 335 whether sufficient attempts have been made to the user concerned. If there are more attempts to contact the relevant user, the process continues at step 331. If the upper limit of attempts to contact the user has been reached, then the user is marked as unreachable in step 336 before the process continues at step 331. If it is determined in step 332 that contact has been established, it is determined in step 333 whether contact has been established with the machine or with the person. The machine is for example a modem, a fax or an answering machine. If it is determined that the machine is off-hook at the user, the associated user is marked as unavailable in step 336 and the process continues as in step 331. On the other hand, if it is determined that the user is off-hook, the user concerned is marked as having answered, and the process continues at step 240 of fig. 2, step 441 of fig. 4, or step 541 of fig. 5. If the user is marked as having responded, then preferably no further attempts will be made, even if the interaction is not completed.

FIG. 4 shows a flow chart of how one method of the present invention interacts with a user. The flow chart of fig. 4 is a possible extension of the interaction step 240 of fig. 2, and in particular when a customer requests a certain survey/poll. Preferably, the first step 441 includes providing introductory information to the user. The introductory information may motivate the user to complete the interaction by offering that there is some kind of gift if the user has completed the interaction. The introductory information may also include information about how the survey/poll should be processed if additional assistance is required or if the user prefers to conduct the survey/poll in a conventional manner by manually dialing or issuing a questionnaire to the user. If the user requires input, the latter information may be provided as the first question of step 442 and the customer may provide an answer in step 443. Input from the user may be made by voice recognition, voice recording, and/or by the user pressing a button on the phone (or turning a dial) to generate a DTMF signal for decoding, i.e., to make the user's answer. In step 444, it is determined whether there are more questions to pass to the user. The number of questions may be a fixed number or a number that dynamically changes with user input. If no more questions are presented to the user, the end information is preferably provided to the user in step 445.

FIG. 5 shows a flow chart of how another method of the present invention interacts with a user. The flow chart of fig. 5 is a possible extension of the interaction step 240 of fig. 2, and in particular when a customer requests some kind of investigation/notification service. Preferably, the first step 541 includes providing introductory information to the user. The introductory information may motivate the user to complete the interaction by offering that there is some kind of gift if the user has completed the interaction. The promotion/advertisement/announcement information is then provided to the user in step 542. Following the advertisement in step 542, end information is preferably provided to the user in step 545.

The present invention may be embodied in hardware exclusively, in software exclusively, or in a combination of hardware and software. If the method of the present invention is implemented in software, the software may be wholly separate or part of a larger program. The software may reside within a general purpose computer or a special purpose computer, as appropriate.

In summary, the invention can be basically described as an apparatus and method that can provide an automatic interactive service for announcement and investigation in a telecommunication network.

The invention is not limited to the embodiments described above but may be varied within the scope of the following patent claims.

Graph 1100 client 101 tap/computer 102 modem/ISDN 103 telephone (DTMF)104 Mobile telephone 110 user 120PSTN121 interface 122 with external network/Internet interface 122 Internet 123 interface 124 with external database interface 124 external database 131 local exchange LE141 text to Voice 142 Voice recognition 142 recorder 150 switching node-SSP 160 control node-SCP 170 database node-SDP graph client request step 220 determination that user List step 230 establishes contact with user step 240 interaction with user step 250 interaction completed if user 260 in the label list had not yet dialed user 280 in the label list if interaction was completed and user 290 in the label list if interaction was not completed reported to client 3-expand step 230331 if contact 332 was established at a predetermined time 333 machine formed output-fax, data, and data, Is modem … …? 334 is the user marked in the list as answered 335 and is an attempt to contact the user? 336 mark the user in a list as unable to reach the fig. 4-does the expansion step 240441 give the user introductory information 442 to ask the user 443 to enter/record that the user's answer 444 is still a question? 445 user end information fig. 5-expansion step 240541 promotion/advertisement information 545 user end information for user introductory information 542

Claims (24)

1. A method of providing a telecommunication network service enabling an automatic interaction with a plurality of predetermined subscribers in the telecommunication network over the telecommunication network upon a request from a customer to the telecommunication network, characterized in that the method comprises the steps of:

-determining, in a control node of the telecommunication network, a list of users with which to interact automatically;

-a control node controlling a switching node of the telecommunications network dials the subscribers of the determined list at one or more predetermined occasions to form communication lines with the subscribers of the determined list;

-interacting with each user via the switching node when a communication line is formed;

-determining whether the interaction with the respective user having started the interaction is completed;

-reporting the interaction results with the users in the determined list to the client.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the interaction is an advertisement providing information to the respective user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the interaction is a market survey that provides one or more questions to each user and records responses from each user.

4. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein said predetermined opportunity when the user is dialled is when a user hang-up is detected.

5. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein said predetermined opportunity when to dial the user is when it is detected that the user goes on-hook after having started an off-hook by itself.

6. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein said predetermined opportunity when to dial the user is one of several time periods of the day.

7. A method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that if machine-generated output is detected while the communication line is being formed, the interaction is terminated immediately and the user is marked in the list as unavailable.

8. A method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the user who has detected that the interaction has been completed is marked in a list of users who receive the donation.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the gift is free phone time in a telecommunications network that bills the customer.

10. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that said result is the basis for billing the customer.

11. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that the detection of the number of completed user interactions is the basis for billing the customer.

12. A method of providing a telecommunication network service enabling an automatic interaction with a plurality of predetermined subscribers in the telecommunication network over the telecommunication network upon a request from a customer to the telecommunication network, the method comprising the steps of:

-a control node in the telecommunication network controlling a switching node of the telecommunication network dials predetermined subscribers at one or more predetermined occasions to establish contact with one or more predetermined subscribers;

-interacting with a predetermined subscriber who has established contact when the switching node establishes contact with one or more predetermined subscribers;

-determining with which of the predetermined users that initiated the interaction is completed, so as to form, together with the interaction, a result of the interaction;

-reporting the interaction result with the predetermined user to the client.

13. A method of providing a telecommunication network service, said telecommunication network service automatically interacting with a plurality of predetermined subscribers in the telecommunication network over the telecommunication network upon a request from a customer to the telecommunication network, said method comprising the steps of:

-a control node in the telecommunication network controlling a switching node of the telecommunication network dials predetermined subscribers at one or more predetermined occasions to establish contact with one or more predetermined subscribers;

-upon the switching node establishing contact with one or more predetermined users, interacting with the predetermined users who have established contact;

-forming a result of the interaction with the predetermined user;

-reporting the interaction result with the predetermined user to the client.

14. A telecommunication network (120) for automatically interacting with a plurality of predetermined subscribers (100) in the telecommunication network (117) over the telecommunication network upon a request from a customer (100) to the telecommunication network, said telecommunication network characterized in that it comprises:

-a control node (160) by which to determine a list of users to interact with;

-a switching node (150) which, under the control of a control node controlling the switching node, dials the subscribers of the determined list at one or more predetermined occasions to form communication lines with the subscribers of the determined list;

-interaction means (150, 160, 141, 142, 143) for interacting with respective users of the switching node for forming communication lines therewith;

-determining means (150, 160) for determining whether the interaction of the respective user with whom the interaction has been started is completed;

-means (150, 160) for reporting the interaction results with the users in the determined list to the client.

15. The telecommunication network according to claim 14, characterized in that said interaction is an advertisement and said telecommunication network preferably comprises means (150, 160, 141, 142, 143) for providing information.

16. The telecommunication network according to claim 14, characterized in that said interaction is a market survey and that said telecommunication network comprises means (150, 160, 141, 142, 143) for providing one or more questions and means (150, 160, 142, 143) for recording responses to the questions.

17. The telecommunications network according to any of claims 14 to 16, characterized in that the telecommunications network comprises means (150, 160) for detecting when a user hangs up, and in that the predetermined occasion for dialing up a user is when a user hangs up.

18. The telecommunications network according to any of claims 14 to 16, wherein said predetermined opportunity to dial the subscriber is one of a number of predetermined time periods of the day.

19. The telecommunication network according to any one of claims 14 to 18, characterized in that the telecommunication network comprises means (150, 160) for detecting machine-formed outputs, and that, if a machine-formed output is detected while a communication line is being formed, the interaction is terminated immediately and the subscriber is marked in the list as not reachable.

20. The telecommunication network according to any of claims 14 to 19, characterized in that users detected to have completed an interaction are marked in the user list for gifting.

21. The telecommunications network of claim 20, wherein the gift is free phone time in the telecommunications network that is billed to the customer.

22. The telecommunications network according to any one of claims 14 to 21, wherein the result is a basis for billing the customer.

23. The telecommunication network according to any one of claims 14 to 22, characterized in that the number of detected completed user interactions is the basis for billing the customer.

24. An apparatus for automatically interacting with a plurality of predetermined users in a wireless communication network over a telecommunications network upon a request from a customer to such apparatus in the telecommunications network, said apparatus comprising:

-dialing means (150, 160) for dialing predetermined subscribers at one or more predetermined occasions to establish contact between the apparatus and one or more predetermined subscribers in the telecommunications network;

-interaction means (150, 160, 141, 142, 143) for interacting with one or more predetermined users with whom contact has been established;

-determining means (150, 160) for determining which of the interactions that have started have been completed to form, together with the interaction, a result of the interaction;

-means for reporting the result of the interaction with the predetermined user to the client.