Patent ID: 8155294

Claim:
A method in a caller computing device for associating a telephone call with a caller so that a callee computing device can determine that a telephone call is from the caller, the method comprising: receiving an input from the caller to place a telephone call to the callee, wherein the telephone call is to be established over a public telephone network; sending, via an out-of-band communication mechanism that is out-of-band with respect to the public telephone network, to the callee computing device an indication that the caller is to initiate a telephone call with the callee via the public telephone network so that the callee can anticipate that an incoming call will be from the caller; in response to sending the indication, receiving via the out-of-band communication mechanism from the callee computing device a response to the indication; and after receiving the response at the caller computing device and after the telephone call has been initiated, upon receiving an indication that the initiated telephone call has been delivered to the callee as reported by the public telephone network, sending from the caller computing device via the out-of-band communication mechanism to the callee computing device an indication that the delivered telephone call is from the caller so that the callee computing device is aware that the telephone call is from the caller; and upon receiving an indication that the initiated telephone call has not been delivered to the callee as reported by the public telephone network, sending from the caller computing device via the out-of-band communication mechanism to the callee computing device an indication that the telephone call has not been delivered to the caller so that the callee computing device is aware that any delivered telephone call is not from the caller.