Patent ID: 7260196

Claim:
A method for processing a call from a calling party at a calling communication station to a called communication station in a communication network, the method comprising: receiving the call at a switch; activating a terminating attempt trigger at the switch in response to the call; transmitting a terminating attempt query from the switch to a service control point (SCP) of the communication network in response to the terminating attempt trigger; at the SCP, in response to the terminating attempt query, determining whether standard caller identification for the calling communication station can be provided to the called communication station; if standard caller identification for the calling communication station can not be provided, retrieving call control information from a SCP database; determining from the SCP database a recipient privacy level associated with an intended recipient of the call; returning the call control information and the recipient privacy level to the switch; in response to the call control information, routing the call from the switch to a service platform of the communication system; at the service platform, in response to the call control information and the recipient privacy level, routing the call and all calls to a voice messaging system when the recipient privacy level corresponds to a selected highest privacy level, when the recipient privacy level corresponds to a selected enhanced privacy level, for the call and all calls transmitting a request for audible caller identification information to the calling communication station, transmitting the audible caller identification, if provided, to the called communication station, and further processing the call in response to subsequent input from the called communication station, and when the recipient privacy level corresponds to a selected standard privacy level and when the standard caller identification information cannot be provided to the called communication station, transmitting the request for audible caller identification information for the call to the calling communication station and transmitting the audible caller identification, if provided, to the called communication station, and further processing the call in response to subsequent input from the called communication station.