Patent ID: 7813490

Claim:
A method of providing a customized ring-back tone in a ring-back generator system, the method comprising: receiving an inbound call connection request forwarded from a phone switch that receives the inbound call connection request from a caller phone attempting to connect to a target phone; initiating generation of a first call connection on which to provide the customized ring-back tone to the caller phone; transmitting an outbound call connection request to the phone switch to establish a second call connection through the phone switch to the target phone; receiving an indication from the phone switch that the target phone is being alerted of an attempt by the caller phone to connect to the target phone; enabling a bridge in the ring-back tone generator system to couple the first call connection and the second call connection, the bridge connecting the caller phone to the target phone; providing a custom ring-back tone on the first call connection to the caller phone; attempting to establish the bridge at the phone switch to couple the first call connection and the second call connection, the bridge at the phone switch for relieving a call processing load from the ring back tone generation system; detecting a failure of the bridging attempt by the phone switch; and continuing maintaining the bridge provided by the ringback tone generator.