Patent ID: 7616741

Claim:
A call indication method comprising: recognizing a request to complete a voice over internet protocol (VoIP) call to a called party; receiving custom ring information from a calling party of the VoIP call, the custom ring information representing a calling party selected ring tone to be played to the called party; determining whether the called party has a piece of telephonic equipment capable of outputting the calling party selected ring tone, wherein the piece of telephonic equipment is selected from a group consisting of a computer, a telephone communicatively coupled to a twisted pair network, a cordless telephone, a VoIP telephone, a cellular telephone, a fixed wireless telephone, and an 802.11(x) telephone; determining whether the calling party selected ring tone is allowed; and when the calling party selected ring tone is allowed and when the called party has a piece of telephonic equipment capable of outputting the calling party selected ring tone, initiating delivery of the custom ring information to a telephone of the called party.