Saving and forwarding customized messages

A method of presenting a customized message to a calling party and for allowing the calling party to save or forward the customized message, comprising:

• saving a customized message from a called party for presentation to the calling party;
• associating the customized message with a telephone directory number of the calling party;
• receiving a call from the calling party directed to the called party;
• determining whether the call from the calling party is associated with the customized message;
• if the call from the calling party is associated with the customized message, playing the customized message from the called party to the calling party;
• after playing the customized message to the calling party, receiving an indication from the calling party to save the customized message from the called party to a location designated by the calling party for later retrieval by the calling party;
• saving the customized message to the location designated by the calling party for later retrieval by the calling party;
• determining whether the call from the calling party should be connected to the called party after saving the customized message to the location designated by the calling party;
• and
• if the call from the calling party is not to be connected to the called party after saving the customized message to a location designated by the calling party, terminating an attempt to connect the call from the calling party to the called party.

A system for presenting a customized message to a calling party and for allowing the calling party to save or forward the customized message, comprising:

• a voicemail system within a telecommunications system operative to save a customized message from a called party for presentation to the calling party;
• a service control point operative:
• to associate the customized message with a telephone directory number of the calling party, and
• to register the customized message and the associated telephone directory number;
• a called party's switch operative:
• to receive a call from the calling party directed to the called party, and
• to query the service control point to determine whether the call from the calling party is associated with the customized message;
• the service control point further operative:
• to determine whether the call from the calling party is associated with the customized message, and
• to cause the voicemail system to play the customized message from the called party to the calling party if the call from the calling party is associated with the customized message;
• and
• the voicemail system further operative:
• to receive an indication from the calling party to save the customized message from the called party to a location designated by the calling party for later retrieval by the calling party after the customized message is played to the calling party,
• to save the customized message to the location designated by the calling party for later retrieval by the calling party, and
• to determine whether the call from the calling party should be connected to the called party after saving the customized message to the location designated by the calling party.