Procedure and system for providing an answering service

Procedure for providing an answering service in a telecommunication network comprising a mobile communication network (1), which comprises a first short-message service centre (2);

• a telephone network (3) using digital signalling and connected to the mobile communication network;
• and a number of telecommunication terminals (4;
• 41, 42, . . . , 4n), which are compatible with the mobile communication and/or telephone network, in which procedure a response message is transmitted from a called party's telecommunication terminal to a calling party's telecommunication terminal after the calling party has tried to call the called party, who has activated the answering service in his/her telecommunication terminal, characterised in that
• the response message is a predetermined short message;
• the telephone network (3) is connected to the first short-message service centre (2) via a first telecommunication link (6);
• subscriber type identification of the calling party is added to the response message;
• the response message is transmitted to the first short-message service centre;
• the calling party's subscriber type is verified in the short-message service centre;
• and
• if the calling party is a subscriber in the telephone network, then the setup of a call to the calling party is started and the response message is sent to the calling party during the call setup procedure;
• if the calling party is a subscriber in the mobile communication network, then the response message is sent to the calling party via the first short-message service centre in accordance with the short message definitions of the mobile communication network known in themselves.