Patent ID: 6862345

Claim:
A system for receiving a message from a calling party associated with a telephone with a calling line number associated with a first service switching point and providing said message to a called party associated with a telephone with a called line number, comprising: a second service switching point connected to said telephone with said called line number, said second service switching point comprising a trigger responsive to a no-answer status on said called line number and said called line number is not subscribed to any voice messaging system; a signal transfer point adapted to communicate with said second service switching point; a service control point adapted to communicate with said signal transfer point, said service control point containing a database; and a service node connected to said second service switching point through a first data link, and connected to said service control point through a second data link; wherein said second service switching point sends a query to said service control point responsive to said trigger, said service control point commands one of said service node and said first service switching point to prompt for permission to leave a message from said telephone with said calling line number, said service node is adapted to receive said message from said calling party into a voice messaging system when said called line number has a no-answer status, to store said message; and to deliver said message to said called party responsive to a request from said called party if one of said service node and said first service switching point receives permission to leave a message from said telephone with said calling line number, and wherein the calling party is billed for delivering said message to said called party.