Patent ID: 7184522

Claim:
A method of managing calls through an entertainment system, comprising: notifying by an entertainment system call manager, via a data network, a call management server residing in a telephony provider network to monitor calls on the telephony provider network for the entertainment system; holding in the telephony-network-resident call management server a call on the telephony provider network for the entertainment system prior to routing the call to the entertainment system, in response to the notifying; receiving in the entertainment system call manager a held call signal indicating a held call, during a program play by the entertainment system to a user, via the data network from the telephony-network-resident call management server; presenting by the call manager a selectable call handling option chosen from a group comprising one or more of take the call, send the call to voice mail, forward the call to another number, play a message, ignore the call, and reject the call, in response to the held call signal through the entertainment system during the program play; handling the held call according to a call handling option selected by the user through the entertainment system and provided via the data network to the telephony-network-resident call management server; and taking the held call directly at the entertainment system call manager by answering the held call using a telephone function of the entertainment system call manager, or sending the held call by the entertainment system call manager to a user voice mail at the user's premise, or both, according to the held call handling option selected by the user.