Patent ID: 7227929

Claim:
A telecommunication system in which a message can be generated and heard by at least one of a caller or a recipient of a telephone call during the quiescent period between initiation of a telephone dialing activity and the answering of a telephone by that recipient, and with a ringing signal heard in the telephone of the recipient and a ringback signal heard in the telephone of the caller, said system comprising: (a) a telephone at a first location of a party attempting to initiate a telephone call; (b) a first telephone switching station associated with the telephone at the first location; (c) a second location containing a telephone of a recipient of the telephone communication; (d) a second telephone switching station associated with that second telephone location and receiving a signal from the first switching station regarding the telephone communication and enabling a ringing signal to be generated at the second location; and (e) sound presentation generating means associated with at least one of said switching stations for generating a sound presentation for a time period which commences at the completion of a telephone dialing activity by the caller and during the period when a ringing signal would otherwise occur at the second location and a ringback signal would otherwise occur at the first location and which period would continue until the answering of the recipient telephone at the second location, said sound presentation generating means also causing no sound presentations to be generated when the second telephone is off hook thereby enabling the generation of a busy signal at least on the telephone at the first location.