Patent US 6,094,574

A wireless communications system, such as a paging system, that provides caller identification to a mobile unit. The paging system includes an IVR unit for prompting a caller to enter a call back number and a caller base number. The call base number is a number associated with the identity of the caller, such as the caller's home number or main business number. The paging system further includes an interface unit for obtaining caller identification information from a telephone listing database in an external database, such as the line identification database (LIDB) in a public switched telephone network. In operation, the paging system first determines caller identification from the base number by accessing the LIDB database for a listing corresponding to the base number. The paging system may also perform other steps to determine the caller identification from the caller's base number, such as searching a reverse look-up telephone directory. If the call base number is unavailable or fails to produce caller identification information, the paging system may use the call back number to determine caller identification information. The paging system may also include a voice recognition unit to obtain caller identification information. A voice mail system may also be connected to the paging system that stores a voice mail message from the caller and assigns queue information to the voice mail message. The paging system then transmits a message to the pager that includes the call back number, caller identification, and queue information. A cellular telephony system or personal communications services (PCS) system may also implement the paging system by transmitting the call back number, caller identification and queue information to a mobile station using short messaging services.