Patent ID: 7864939

Claim:
A method of arranging a telephone call, comprising: receiving, from a caller network device, a free form instant text message having caller information associated with the caller network device and called endpoint information associated with a network device to be called, the free form instant text message including a time at which a telephone call is to be initiated; initiating an arrangement of the telephone call by a server prior to an attempt to call the network device in response to receiving the free form instant text message, the arrangement being associated with the time to initiate the telephone call; sending a first alerting signal to the network device to be called and a second alerting signal to the caller network device automatically by the server at the time included in the free form instant text message, the network device to be called becoming a called network device in response to the first alerting signal being sent, the first and second alerting signals being sent to each of the caller network device and the called device at the time included in the free form instant text message so that the caller network device and the called network device are each called by the server at the time included in the free form instant text message; detecting whether a first connection signal is received from the called network device and whether a second connection signal is received from the caller network device; attempting to connect the called network device to the caller network device in response to the first connection signal and the second connection signal; and sending at least one of an instant message and an e-mail to the caller network device after attempting to connect the called network device to the caller network device fails and in response to the first connection signal not being received from the called network device.