Patent ID: 7561676

Claim:
A method for enabling a telephone caller to send a message to a recipient having a specified phone number, said method comprising: receiving a signal from a caller's phone wherein the signal comprises first and second signal components that are defined by characters specified by the American Standard Code for Information Interchange, said first signal component representing a message generated by said caller at said caller's phone, and said second signal component representing said specified phone number of said recipient, wherein said characters comprise alphanumeric characters that are sequentially entered by said caller to generate said first signal component, said character sequence collectively comprising said message; transmitting said signal to an intermediate site located between said caller and said recipient; processing said signal at said intermediate site to determine whether or not said recipient is authorized to receive said message represented by said first signal component, wherein said processing includes determining whether said recipient subscribes to a message service that enables said recipient to receive said message, and wherein said signal is directed to a tag handling device in response to determining that said recipient subscribes to said message service, and wherein said tag handling device notifies said caller to submit an alphanumeric character sequence that is different from the alphanumeric character sequence initially entered by said caller, and wherein said tag handling device contains a list of tags, each of said tags defining a different message pre-specified by said recipient, and said caller is notified by said tag handling device to select and enter any tag from said list, and wherein said first signal component is disregarded and said second signal component is routed to said recipient to establish a connection between said caller and said recipient in response to determining that said recipient does not subscribe to said message service; and routing said signal to said recipient upon determining that said recipient is authorized to receive said first signal component, whereupon said first signal component is decoded at the location of said recipient to present said message to said recipient, wherein said first signal component is decoded to provide said sequence of alphanumeric characters for display within a display device in said recipient's phone.