Abstract: A method and apparatus for processing incoming telephone calls to a telephone control system. The apparatus includes a memory for storing electronic signals including signals representative of telephone network addresses and a processing unit for processing an incoming telephone call from a caller. Information is communicated by the processing unit to said caller indicating that the incoming call can be routed (e.g. branched) to any one of at least two telephone network destinations. The processing unit responds to the transmission by the caller of a command corresponding to the desired telephone network address by routing the incoming call to the telephone network address corresponding to the command transmitted by said caller.

Abstract: A telephone control system connects to the telephone line from a telephone exchange. The control system includes a detector for detecting signals on the line, a signal generator for producing and applying control signals to the telephone line, memory for storing electronic signals and a central processor for monitoring signals on the line as detected by the detector, accessing the memory to produce and apply control signals to the signal generator. The control system is programmable to provide a variety of controllable functions to a remote user including activation of the conferencing/transferring function provided by the telephone exchange to allow a user to sequentially complete successive phone calls through the control system without the user hanging-up, or to redirect calls to pre-programmed, remotely controllable numbers. In addition, the control system is capable of receiving, storing and redirecting messages to pagers.