Patent ID: 8249239

Claim:
A method comprising: via at least one computer device: notifying a called destination of a caller attempting to establish a call connection with the called destination over a packet-switched network; receiving, from the called destination, selection of a given call connection option to communicate with the caller amongst multiple call connection options; providing a ring-back tone to the caller independent of the given call connection option selected by a user; upon detection of the called destination accepting the call connection, initiating creation of the call connection over the packet-switched network in accordance with the given call connection option selected by the called destination; wherein notifying the called destination of the caller attempting to establish the call connection includes notifying the called destination of a set of corresponding acceptable call connection encoding options for communicating with the caller, the set of corresponding acceptable call connection encoding options being received from the caller and forwarded to the called destination; wherein receiving selection of the given call connection option includes receiving selection, from the called destination, of the given call connection option from the set of corresponding acceptable call connection encoding options forwarded to the called destination wherein providing the ring-back tone includes: initiating play back of the ring-back tone to the caller based on a call connection option selected by a ring-back tone generator that, independent of the called destination, generates and transmits the ring-back tone over the packet-switched network to the caller while notifying he called destination of the caller attempting to establish the call connection.