Patent ID: 8300796

Claim:
A method of handling a call in a telecommunications system, comprising the steps of: storing call treatment options in a database; receiving a call signal at a terminating exchange; determining whether call treatment based on called party preference is to be invoked; if not, then performing conventional call processing; if call treatment based on called party preference is to be invoked, then contacting a Ring Back Tone (RBT) service platform, where the called party had previously subscribed to a RBT service; notifying the called party that a call is being signaled; prompting the called party to provide an input for treatment of the call based on call treatment options stored in the database, while the call treatment options are presented and acted upon by the called party the call itself is not presented to the called party; if input from the called party is received, providing the selected treatment; if input from the called party is not received, providing a default treatment, wherein the default treatment is either a network option applicable to all subscribers or is previously selected or specified by the called party; and interacting between the RBT service platform and the terminating exchange to connect a call to a media server to play a RBT for the calling party after the step of contacting the RBT service platform while the called party is selecting a call treatment option, where the played RBT content was previously selected by the called party.