Patent ID: 7324638

Claim:
A method of notifying a called party of a call from a calling party, comprising: receiving the call from a calling party; communicating an announcement to the calling party's calling telephone number; communicating the calling telephone number to the called party's called telephone number; after communicating the calling telephone number to the called telephone number, then using out-of-band signaling to query a database for a call reception status that determines whether to connect the calling telephone number to the called telephone number; receiving the call reception status; when the called party's call reception status is restricted, then, after the call has been placed, receiving a third party's forwarding number from the called party, connecting the calling telephone number to the forwarding number of the third party, and indefinitely continuing to play an announcement to the calling party; when the call reception status permits connection; then querying to determine whether the called telephone number is encumbered; when the called telephone number is encumbered, then querying for an encumbered line bypass feature that describes calling telephone numbers, dates, and times for which calls are connected; when the calling telephone number corresponds to an encumbered line bypass feature, then connecting the calling telephone number to the called telephone number; when the calling telephone number fails to correspond to the encumbered line bypass feature, then waiting for an assent from the called party; if an assent is received, then connecting the calling telephone number to the called telephone number; if an assent is not received, then connecting the calling telephone number to the third party's forwarding number; determining that the called party is connected to an information network by comparing a telephone number to which the called party is connected to a list of telephone numbers associated with the information network; comparing the calling telephone number and a call date and time to encumbrances, wherein the call date and time is compared to a range of disconnect times for disconnecting from the information network; notifying the called party of the calling party's arriving call; notifying the called party that the information network will be disconnected and how long in time before the disconnection is made; and disconnecting the called party from the information network.