Patent ID: 7957513

Claim:
A method for providing a no-ring telephone call service, the method comprising: receiving notification that a telephone call from a calling party device requesting to use the no-ring telephone call service has arrived at a switch, the notification including a called party telephone number; and determining if the called party telephone number corresponds to a voice mail platform telephone number in a region wide messaging database, wherein: when the called party telephone number corresponds to a voice mail platform telephone number, instructions to route the telephone call to the voice mail platform telephone number are communicated to the switch; when the called party telephone number does not correspond to a voice mail platform telephone number and the calling party device is utilizing the no-ring telephone call service, instructions to play a pre-recorded message are communicated to the switch, the pre-recorded message including a direct connect option for completing the telephone call to the called party telephone number including ringing a device at the called party telephone number; and when the calling party device selects the direct connect option, the no-ring telephone call application sends instructions to the switch to complete the telephone call.