Patent attributes
A ring-back tone generator system provides a customized ring-back tone to a calling party (attempting to reach a called party) while the ring-back tone generator system participates in alerting the called party of the call connection request. Upon acceptance of the call connection by the called party answering his phone, the ring-back tone generator system can temporarily bridge the caller party with the called party. After at least temporarily providing the bridge, the ring-back tone generator system communicates with a remote phone switch system for purposes of offloading the bridge to a remote device that instead provides the bridge between the caller and the called party. Accordingly, the ring-back tone generator system can participate in a process of providing a customized ring-back tone to a caller, initiate alerting of a called party of the call, bridging a call, and a handing off a call.