Patent ID: 7027576

Claim:
A call processing method in a telecommunications system, the method comprising: receiving a call placed by a calling party for a called party at a called communication station; retrieving a subscriber profile which defines call screening information for the called party; playing to the calling party one of a called party-provided greeting and a greeting announcement; if a recorded name screening feature is active, prompting the calling party for identification, and recording the spoken identification provided by the calling party; if the called party is engaged in a call, providing an announcement and entering a call waiting process; otherwise, routing the call to a directory number in accordance with the subscriber profile; playing to the called communication station one of a predefined announcement and the recorded spoken identification; determining from the subscriber profile if caller ID screening is active for the called party; if so, determining if a calling directory number is available for the call; if so, providing the calling party directory number to the called communication station; otherwise, if the calling directory number is \unknown, announcing an unavailable directory number to the called communication station; prompting the called party to enter a call routing option; detecting a call routing option entered at the called communication station; if the entered call routing option corresponds to rejecting the call, routing the call to a reject-call default destination; and if the entered call routing option corresponds to accepting the call, connecting the call between the calling party with the called party.