Abstract: A method and apparatus for identifying a caller who does not provide caller identification on an unanswered call. The caller is asked to record his/her name (or some other characteristic utterance). If the call is unanswered, the record is retained and can be accessed by the called party when that party requests his/her stored voice mail. Advantageously, even on unanswered calls, the identity of the caller can be presented to the called party when that called party requests stored voice mail messages, even if the calling party has private service.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method for sending and receiving text messages using the wireline telephone network, common control switching arrangements, and commonly available equipment such as DTMF telephones and caller-ID devices. One wireline Short Message Service (SMS) application is a broadcast message system that can update parents of students who attend a school. Further applications include user-controlled lists, dynamic lists, Public Service Announcements, and news services. Call signaling methods are utilized to alert the receiving station of an incoming message and to deliver the message. Alerting options include using suppressed ringing to deliver a message without ringing the line as part of a calling name parameter during normal alerting, ISDN D-channel (out of band) message(s), or using normal ringing and sending the FSK after answer on an adjunct CPE or computer-only line. Additionally, a text message could be scheduled at a targeted date and time for delivery.