Patent ID: 6901139

Claim:
A ringtone system implemented as a ringtone service to a called party by a telephone service provider of the called party, the called party wishing to have a particular ringtone annunciated for each of several types of calls from calling parties and subscribing to the ringtone service as provided by the telephone service provider, the ringtone service for determining the type of each call and annunciating the corresponding ringtone to the called party, the ringtone system including: means in connection with a call from a calling party for prompting the calling party to identify the type of the call, for receiving the type of the call from the calling party, and for, if no type is received, typing the call in a particular manner; a list of types of calls with respect to and as specified by the called party, each type of call on the list having a corresponding ringtone specified therefor; and means for processing the typed call by determining from the list of types of calls for the called party the corresponding ringtone specified for the typed call, and for putting the call through to the called party with the determined ringtone.