Patent ID: 7623638

Claim:
A method for processing a call from a calling party at a calling communication station to a called party at a called communication station in a telecommunications network including at least one switch and a telephony database, the method comprising: receiving the call from the calling communication station at a switch; transmitting a termination attempt query from the switch; communicating the termination attempt query to a telephony database, wherein the telephony database is configured to: determine whether caller identification information contained within in the termination attempt query is valid; determine whether standard caller identification information for the calling communication station can be provided to the called communication station; identify the call as presentation unavailable, if either the standard caller identification information or the caller identification information is unavailable; receiving a forward call message at the switch, when the call is identified as presentation unavailable, wherein the forward call message includes a presentation indicator associated with the called communication station, and a parameter indicating that a selected request message should be used for the request; originating a second call at the switch that requests audible caller identification information in accordance with the customer selected request message; and transmitting, in connection with the second call, the audible caller identification information to the called communication station in a format specified by the called party.