Patent ID: 8483379

Claim:
A telephone control apparatus comprising: a plurality of incoming call groups each including one or more telephone terminals; a storing unit for storing ringtone patterns, each of the incoming call groups having a corresponding ringtone pattern of the ringtone patterns; and a controlling unit for performing a ring operation of the one or more telephone terminals belonging to one of the incoming call groups which is to receive a call, based on the corresponding ringtone pattern for the one incoming call group specified from the storing unit, wherein when a certain incoming call group among the incoming call groups is in a call receiving condition based upon a placed call being received by the telephone control apparatus for the certain incoming call group, the controlling unit specifies the ringtone pattern corresponding to the certain incoming call group by referring to the storing unit, and controls the one or more telephone terminals belonging to the certain incoming call group to perform a ring operation based on the ringtone pattern corresponding to the certain incoming call group, after the controlling unit controls the one or more telephone terminals belonging to the certain incoming call group to perform the ring operation, the controlling unit determines a key associated with the placed call and controls the one or more telephone terminals belonging to the certain incoming call group to display the key.