Patent ID: 8249240

Claim:
A method for handling an on-hold telephone call, the method comprising: receiving an incoming telephone call from a calling party on a first line of a called party, where the called party is an on-hold service subscriber; placing the calling party on hold; providing a first menu of selectable options, each associated with a first respective predefined operation, during the telephone call to the on-hold calling party, wherein the first plurality of selectable options includes an option to play a second menu of a second plurality of selectable options and an option associated with the on-hold calling party providing physical geographic location information to obtain information particular to the physical geographic location, and receiving from the on-hold calling party, a first selected option request that corresponds to one of the first plurality of selectable options; and performing the predefined operation associated with the first selected option request, wherein an option to return to the first menu is provided after receiving the first selected option request.