Patent ID: 7698367

Claim:
A telecommunications method, comprising: identifying an e-mail at a mail server as requesting a presence determination of a recipient prior to delivery, said identifying including identifying from the e-mail if a presence determination of said recipient has been requested by a sender of the e-mail; querying a presence server for a presence of said recipient; determining if said recipient is a client of a presence service supported by the presence server; sending a message to said sender asking whether the e-mail should be delivered if said recipient is not a client of a presence service supported by the presence server, and delivering said e-mail to said recipient if said sender indicates, responsive to said message, that the e-mail should be delivered; if said recipient is a client of the presence service, and said presence server indicates that said recipient is present, delivering the e-mail to said recipient; else if said presence server indicates that said recipient is not present, storing said e-mail at said mail server until said presence server indicates that said recipient is present.