Patent ID: RE42122

Claim:
A method for allowing a subscriber to provide customized announcements to callers, said method comprising: populating a database with a subscriber telephone number, a list of designated caller numbers, associated caller names, and associated announcements; determining a caller's called party number and a caller's calling party number; providing an announcement associated with the calling party number when (i) the called party number matches the subscriber telephone number, (ii) the calling party number is in the list of designated caller numbers, and (iii) the calling party number appears only once in the list of designated caller numbers; and providing the announcement associated with the calling party number and a caller name when (i) the called party number matches the subscriber telephone number, (ii) the calling party number is in the list of designated caller numbers, (iii) the calling party number appears more than once in the list of designated caller numbers, and (iv) a caller has entered the caller name after being prompted.