Cordless telephone registration method

Claim 1

In a telephone network having at least one cordless telephone base station connected thereto, a method of on-air registration of a cordless telephone handset with the telephone network, the cordless telephone handset not being already registered with the telephone network, the cordless telephone handset having a unique identification number for the telephone network, the method comprising the steps of: a) preparing the cordless telephone handset in advance to identify the telephone network with which registration is sought; b) preparing the telephone network in advance to expect a registration request from the cordless telephone handset; c) a user of the cordless telephone handset setting up a communications link between the cordless telephone handset and the telephone network by operating the cordless telephone handset to start transmitting a link request, and the base station that receives the link request operating responsively to confirm receipt of the link request; and d) communicating over the communications link between the cordless telephone handset and the base station to complete the registration, including the steps of: (i) determining whether the registration request from the cordless telephone handset is pending by checking the unique identification number of the cordless telephone handset attempting registration, and (ii) automatically transferring registration data from the base station to the cordless telephone handset upon the successful determination that the registration request is pending, the registration data being permanent and independent of the base station and including the unique identification number of the cordless telephone handset.