Method and apparatus for providing a central telephony service for a calling party at the called party telephone

摘要

For providing a telephone service between a source telephone and a target telephone, the target telephone is equipped with an incoming channel and an outgoing channel. Upon an incoming call from the source telephone received at the target telephone via the incoming channel being unanswered, the target telephone simultaneously establishes an outgoing call with a server via the outgoing channel. This creates a bridge between the source telephone and the server, thereby rendering a message prompt produced by the telephone service audible at both the source and target telephones. The server may be a voice mail system that allows call screening by the target telephone of a call by the source telephone if the target telephone does not go off-hook within a predetermined time interval. Or the server may provide a personalized ring signal or message to the target telephone until the target telephone goes off-hook.