Patent ID: 8116744

Claim:
A multiple voice-mail system notification network comprising: at least two remote voice-mail systems, each remote voice-mail system being associated with a distinct phone number associated with a user of a mobile communications device; and a centralized voice-mail system in communication with the remote voice-mail systems; wherein the centralized voice-mail system is configured to: receive a distinct message-waiting notification from each of the remote voice-mail systems, each distinct message-waiting notification notifying the centralized voice-mail system of a respective message received by the remote voice-mail system; establish a connection with each remote voice-mail system, automatically in response to having received the message-waiting notification from the remote voice-mail systems; receive the respective message and data associated with each message from each remote voice-mail systems, the data associated with each message comprising a priority level of the message and at least one of a date, a time, a telephone number of a caller who initiated the message, an electronic address of the caller who initiated the message, and a place holder for information associated with the caller who initiated the message, wherein the priority level of the message is established by an authorized calling party and a party is authorized only if the calling party is identified in a contacts list associated with the user of the mobile communications device; determine a message-waiting indicator, corresponding to each distinct message-waiting notification, based on the data associated with the message, each message-waiting indicator indicating a distinct voice-mail platform corresponding to the remote voice-mail system from which the message was received and to the phone number; and transfer each determined message-waiting indicator, including indication of the voice-mail platform, to the mobile communications device for simultaneous display of each message-waiting indicator indicating the voice-mail platform to the user via the mobile communications device.