Patent ID: 8139739

Claim:
A method comprising: obtaining, by an application server of a network, confirmation from a service profile database that a called communications device is subscribed to an alerting service, the obtaining being in response to a request from a calling communications device to participate in a first call session between the calling communications device and the called communications device; obtaining, by the application server in response to the confirmation, identity information corresponding to the calling communications device from a name database; generating, by the application server, an announcement based on the identity information corresponding to the calling communications device and a service profile associated with the called device obtained from the service profile database; establishing, by the application server, a second call session between the application server and the called communications device; sending the announcement to the called communications device, from the application server, during the second call session; and sending, by the application server, an invitation for the called communications device to participate in the first call session in response to a reply to the announcement, the reply being received by the application server from the called communications device.