Patent ID: 6310939
Filing Date: 2001-10-30
Classification: H04M

Abstract:
A method for providing a call screening service feature comprising the steps of:a calling party at a first station dialing a number of a called party's station starting a first call and causing an alerting at said called party's station;if the called party's station is not answered, determining that a no answer condition exists for the dialed number;if a called party corresponding to the called party's station is a subscriber to a voice mail service feature, invoking a known call-forwarding-on-no- answer service feature;in response to said call-forwarding-on- no-answer service feature, forwarding the first call to a number of a switch based voice mail system;based on the dialed number, determining by a service control point that the called party is a subscriber to a screening type of voice mail service;routing the first call to a service switching point connected to a service node and passing call setup information of the first call to the service node;answering said first call by said service node and storing the calling party's number, dialed party's number and the number of the voice mail system;placing a second call that is destined for the voice mail system;routing this second call to said voice mail system;bridging the first call with the second call;said voice mail system playing a prerecorded greeting to said calling party and beginning to receive any transmitted message therefrom;in response to said alerting, said called party going off-hook and dialing a control string in order to screen a message the calling party is transmitting to said voice mail system;bridging the called party on to the bridged first and second calls between the calling party at calling party's station and the voice mail system by using a 2 B-Channel Transfer Feature switch capability;monitoring the portion of bridged first call and second call to the called party's station for speech and if speech is detected dropping from said bridged first call and second call the connection to said voice mail system; andterminating any remaining portions of the bridged first call and second call when said calling party goes on-hook.