Patent ID: 8184619

Claim:
A method for providing voicemail to a set top box, the method comprising: receiving, by an internet protocol television gateway, a communication that the voicemail to a called party is being deposited in a voicemail infrastructure; mapping, by the internet protocol television gateway, a called party number associated with the called party to an internet protocol enabled device address of the called party; sending, by the internet protocol television gateway, the voicemail to the internet protocol enabled device address corresponding to the called party number; in an event a calling party is in a process of currently leaving the voicemail in the voicemail infrastructure, causing to display via the set top box a selectable option for the called party to listen to the calling party while the calling party is in the process of currently leaving the voicemail; and in response to the called party initiating the selectable option, allowing the called party to listen to the calling party while the calling party is in the process of currently leaving the voicemail; wherein the internet protocol television gateway is configured to communicate with a preferences server to determine the set top box, having requested to receive calling party information comprising the calling party number and name, out of a plurality of set top boxes at a subscriber location; wherein a call log stored on the internet protocol television gateway is configured to log a decision of the called party to monitor the voicemail in the process of being left; and wherein the call log stored on the internet protocol television gateway is configured to add an additional entry of whether the called party monitored the voicemail in the process of being left, whether the called party answered the telephone call while monitoring the voicemail in the process of being left, and times for which the called party monitored voicemails in a process of being left.