Intelligent ringtone service based on message attributes

Abstract From the Canadian patent

An apparatus and methods are disclosed for enabling a telecommunications terminal to notify its user of the arrival of a message via an acoustic or visual signal whose properties are based on attributes of the message. A network infrastructure element (e.g. a switch a private branch exchange PBX, a server etc.) receives a message directed to a terminal and sets the values of ringtone properties (e.g. tempo volume, pitch, rhythm, etc.) based on attributes of an incoming message (e.g. the sender a priority, a subject, the location from which the message was sent etc.). In a first illustrative embodiment the network infrastructure element sends the message and the instantiated ringtone to the …