System and method for user affiliation in a telephone network

In an environment where subscribers call a user over a telephone network, wherein a user telephone is coupled with the telephone network, a system for user specification of call processing in the telephone network, the system comprising:

• a data structure contained within a computer network and accessible by the telephone network, the data structure containing a plurality of caller lists each having associated user-selectable criteria for call processing, wherein some of the plurality of caller lists are conditioned according to current activity of subscribers on the computer network or according to current activity of the user on the computer network;
• a computer network access port used by the telephone network to access the data structure such that the telephone network has access to the plurality of caller lists;
• and
• a controller on the telephone network to receive an incoming call having origination data indicative of a subscriber and destination data indicating the call is designated for the user telephone, the controller accessing the plurality of caller lists in the data structure via the computer network access port to determine which of the plurality of caller lists contains the origination data, the controller processing the incoming call in accordance with the user-selectable criteria associated with the caller list containing the origination data.

In a system where subscribers call a user over a telephone network, wherein a user telephone is coupled with the telephone network, a computer program product for implementing a method for processing a call from a subscriber to a user over a telephone network, the computer program product comprising:

• a computer readable medium having computer executable instructions for performing the method, the method comprising:
• accepting an incoming call designated for the user telephone;
• accessing a data structure contained within a computer network that is independent of the telephone network to retrieve user-selectable criteria for call processing stored within the data structure, wherein some of the user-selectable criteria is conditioned on current activity of subscribers on the computer network or according to current activity of the user on the computer network;
• and
• processing the incoming call in accordance with the user-selectable criteria.

In a system including a telephone network and a computer network where an originating telephone connects with a user telephone over the telephone network, a method for processing a call from the originating telephone to the user telephone according to user specifications, the method comprising:

• accepting an incoming call designated for the user telephone from an originating telephone of a subscriber;
• accessing a data structure contained within a computer network that is independent of the telephone network to retrieve user-selectable criteria for call processing stored within the data structure, wherein some of the user-selectable criteria is conditioned on current activity of subscribers on the computer network or according to current activity of the user on the computer network;
• and
• processing the incoming call of the subscriber in accordance with the user-selectable criteria.