Abstract: Methods for placing and controlling an unavailable state of a destination telephone number. When in an unavailable state, callers attempting to contact a destination telephone number are provided with a prompt through to create a task that provides a notification when the connection between the calling telephone and the destination telephone is possible. Within this task, the unavailable state of the destination is tested, and if a predetermined criterion is satisfied, the notification is provided to the caller through the communication network. A connection can then be established if the caller approves. The unavailable state of a destination telephone number can be set by providing commands to a node in the communication network. The destination can be unavailable for all callers or only for specific callers. A programmed control system can be used to implement these methods.