WO2008143948A1

WO2008143948A1 - System and method for customer background targeted media advertising

Info

Publication number: WO2008143948A1
Application number: PCT/US2008/006252
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jeff W. Lee
Original assignee: Adfonic Inc.
Priority date: 2007-05-14
Filing date: 2008-05-14
Publication date: 2008-11-27

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method of operating a telecommunication system comprises accepting a telephone call from a caller to an access number; determining a geographical location of a callee; presenting the caller with one or more advertisements from an advertisement set, wherein the one or more advertisements are chosen from the advertisement set based on at least the geographical location of the callee; and facilitating a connection between the caller and the callee after beginning to present the caller with the one or more advertisements. Additional embodiments are disclosed herein.

Description

Title: System and Method for Customer Background Targeted Media Advertising

Inventor: Jeff W. Lee (Fairfax, VA) Assignee: Adfonic Inc. (Fairfax, VA)

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

[0001) This international application filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/917,694, filed May 14, 2007.

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0002] This disclosure relates generally to systems and methods for media advertising, and relates more particularly to systems and methods for targeted media advertising.

BACKGROUND

|0003] The demand of ethnic consumers to make international long distance telephone calls has been growing and expanding with huge growth potential as immigrants and businesses want to keep in touch with friends, families and partners over seas. Up until now most people have had two choices: (1) unregulated, poor quality calling cards; or (2) expensive, out-of-reach international long distance telephone call carriers. Neither option, however, provides a good choice to ethnic consumers.

[0004] Also, advertising to particular sub-segments of the population based on certain characteristics of those sub-segments has been tried and failed many times over. This type of advertising has come to be known as directed advertising because the advertising party directs the advertisement at the sub-segment of the population. Often, such advertising takes the form of direct mailings from, for example, a local restaurant to the homes in the vicinity of the restaurant in order to induce the people living in those homes to eat at the restaurant as opposed to its competitors. |0005] Such advertising is more cost effective and efficient than other types of advertising such as a city wide or national advertising campaign for the restaurant because it is highly unlikely that anyone living outside of the immediate vicinity of the restaurant would dine at the restaurant. Indeed, in many cases, any money spent on such a national advertising campaign would be essentially wasted because that money would not generate any business from non-local diners.

[0006] Unfortunately, the problems with businesses that rely upon directed advertising to reach the ethnic communities and consumers are many. One very important problem is that frequently the directed advertising is delivered via traditional media with very little measurable return on investment (ROI) and effectiveness. In other words, there are no good ways to market products and services to ethnic consumers with traditional media and online ads. Frequently, the advertisement, even if it is part of a directed advertisement campaign, actually generates very little result to make it worth the effort. Instead some of the efforts targeted to ethnic communities can generate negative sentiment against the advertiser on the part of the person receiving the advertisement.

[0007] Telemarketing is one type of directed advertising that generates this negative sentiment. Telemarketing refers to the use of a telephone system to solicit prospective customers to buy products or services. The prospective customers are identified and qualified by various means, including past purchase histories, previous requests for information, credit limit, competition entry forms or application forms. Names may also be purchased from another company's customer database, or obtained from a telephone directory or some other public list or forum. The qualification process is intended to find those prospective customers most likely to purchase the product or service being sold or advertised. [0008] Despite the negative sentiment created by telemarketing, the fact that telemarketers have undivided access to customers makes this form of advertising effective. Unfortunately for telemarketing firms, however, recent governmental regulations have sharply diminished the ability of these firms to make unsolicited contact with prospective customers. Thus, there is a need for telemarketers to have access to prospective customers that does not threaten the telemarketers with criminal or civil penalties if they are found to be in violation of the new regulations.

[0009] The need is paired with a continued need for companies to be able to conduct directed advertising campaigns targeted at ethnic groups in order to generate sales for their products and services. Moreover, immigrant telephone users remain in need for subsidized long distance telephone service to lower the cost of communicating with friends and family overseas.

SUMMARY OF PARTICULAR EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

[0010] According to an aspect of the invention, a method of providing a channel to reach ethnic communities by subsidized long distance telephone service comprises offering free international long distance telephone service to users in return for the users to listen to advertising over the phone, IP phone, soft phone, or cell phone.

[0011] According to an aspect of the present invention, an automated telecommunication/internet system enables ethnic consumers to place telephone calls free of charge in return for one or more of the following: (1) listening to pre-recorded advertising messages targeted to the ethnic consumer/caller based on geographical and other demographic information provided by the systems evaluation of the caller's area code, exchange (ANI), DNIS (dialed network information services), and then historical system usage; (2) dialed country code and destination number; (3) providing demographic or other survey information about the consumer and his or her family; and (4) preferences of the type of products and services the consumer/caller prefers.

(0012] According to an aspect of the invention, a method of operating an automated ethnic focused automated system comprises accepting an incoming telephone call from a ethnic consumer with preferred language at a location to be identified by the system; prompting the consumer during the incoming telephone call to enter a telephone number of a party to be called; presenting at least one advertisement in consumer's native language or English to the consumer, the advertisement being chosen from a set of advertisements based at least partly upon the geographical location of the consumer and/or preprogrammed logic in the system; connecting the ethnic consumer/caller to an advertiser associated with the advertisement and then to the party to be called, or connecting the consumer to only the party to be called, based on a preference of the consumer to press a escape key such as "*" during the playing of the advertisement; and interrupting the connection between the consumer and the called party after a pre-determined time. In some examples, the party to be called may be referred to as a callee. The functions in this paragraph can be achieved, for example, through a communications module coupled to a database module, where the communications module handles interaction between the consumer and the database module, and further facilitates the connection between the consumer and the advertiser or the party to be called, while the database module facilitates the selection of advertisements.

[0013] According to this aspect of the invention, the system identifies the advertising target via one of caller identification (ID), the dialed destination number, and/or ethnic caller entering identification information.

[0014] The choosing of the advertisement can comprise caller ID and/or destination number matching to advertisement effective areas identified by the advertiser; assigning a high priority to any advertisements that the consumer has not listened to recently, or at all; and determining whether system logic dictates the choosing of any particular advertisement from the set of advertisements.

[00151 The connecting the consumer to an advertiser associated with the advertisement can comprise presenting the consumer with an option of being connected directly to a pre-registered phone number of the advertiser. If the consumer chooses to be connected to the advertiser after listening to the embedded prompt from the pre-recorded advertisement, the consumer can be redirected to the advertiser's registered number to complete the transaction and terminate the call after the transaction.

[0016] If the consumer chooses not to be connected to the advertiser after the embedded prompt to press the "*" key, the ethnic consumer can be presented with at least one advertisement target to his/her ethnicity and culture background prior to being connected to his/her dialed destination number.

[00171 The terminating can comprise timing a connection between the ethnic consumer and the called party in his/her native country; and providing warnings to the ethnic consumer that a time limit is approaching and/or that the connection will be terminated.

[0018] In addition, the method can further comprise prompting the consumer to visit a web portal to gain additional value, coupons, and other promotional information.

[0019| Further, the ethnic consumer may establish an account with the system, the account being accessible to the consumer, and may be identified by the system as a registered user. The account is accessible via an internet community portal for the consumer to access his/her account and to get additional information from the internet. Concurrently the advertiser may establish an account with the system with a profile. The advertiser may create campaigns, schedule ads, select target ethnic consumers, replenish advertising account and get real time marketing statistics. In a different embodiment, the consumer need not have to establish an account to use the system. In another embodiment, the system need not establish accounts for any user in order to provide service.

[0020] In addition, the method further comprises gathering demographic and/or product preference information from the ethnic consumer.

[0021] According to another aspect of the invention, an automated telecommunication system connected to a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and/or an IP Network, comprises a Targeted Advertisement system to receive toll free telephone calls from ethnic consumers, to play at least one advertisement to the consumer, the advertisement being chosen from a set of advertisements based at least partly upon a geographical location of the consumer and/or preprogrammed logic in the system, to gather demographic and/or survey information from the consumer, and/or to connect the consumer to a called party for a pre-determined period of time; a first node from which the consumer makes the toll free call into the free call system; and a second node at which the called party receives the connected consumer.

[0022] According to this aspect of the invention, the free call system comprises an inbound path, which carries a voice band signal and a soft switch, and/or a Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) signaling with Dual Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) and a gateway; and an outbound path, controlled by a switch which is in turn controlled by the automated system, connected to a recorded message storage or a server.

[0023] The system could employ connections to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to connect calls over the PSTN and the connections to the Internet Protocol (IP) network to connect calls via the internet. The system automatically determines whether to route the call via a PSTN or a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network based upon the destination of the call, cost, network availability, and other pre-determined logic. [0024) The advertiser can establish an account with the system, the account being accessible to the advertiser. The account is accessible via an internet web page as a portal for the advertiser to access his/her account and to get additional information from the internet. The advertiser may create campaigns, schedule ads, select target ethnic consumers, replenish the advertising account, and get real time marketing statistics. Concurrently the advertiser may authorize a payment over the internet to replenish his/her account.

[0025| According to still yet another aspect of the invention, a method of operating an automated ethnic advertising system comprises accepting an incoming telephone call from a consumer to be identified by the system, the consumer being prompted during the incoming telephone call to enter a telephone number of a party to be called, playing at least one advertisement to the consumer, the advertisement being chosen from a set of advertisements based upon the identity of the consumer and/or pre-programmed logic in the system, connecting the consumer to an advertiser associated with the advertisement and then to the party to be called or connecting the consumer to only the party to be called based on a preference of the consumer, and terminating the connection between the consumer and the called party after a predetermined time, wherein the connecting the consumer to the called party comprises routing the connection over a Voice over IP (VoIP) network.

[00261 The routing comprises automatically determining whether to route the call via a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) or a VoIP network based upon the destination of the call and network availability. In addition, the routing comprises interconnections to multiple wholesale termination partners worldwide.

[0027] Additional and/or other aspects and advantages of embodiments of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, the accompanying drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0028] These and/or other aspects and advantages of the embodiments of the invention will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:

[0029] FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a system of interconnected consumers, called parties, and telemarketers, according to an embodiment of the invention;

[0030] FIG. 2 is a second schematic view of a system of interconnected consumers, called parties, and telemarketers, according to an embodiment of the invention;

[0031] FIG. 3 is a third schematic view of a system of interconnected consumers, called parties, and telemarketers, according to an embodiment of the invention;

[0032[ FIGS. 4 is a diagram of a method of operation of the Automated Ethnic Advertising System according to one embodiment of the invention;

[0033J FIG. 5 is a diagram of a method of operation of the Automated Ethnic Advertising System where different options are presented to a consumer, according to an embodiment of the invention;

[0034] FIG. 6 a diagram of an Automated Ethnic Advertising System with a community website, according to another embodiment of the invention;

[0035] FIG. 7 is a schematic view of the Automated Ethnic Advertising System according to an embodiment of the invention; and

[0036] FIG. 8 is a schematic view of the Automated Ethnic Advertising System according to an embodiment of the invention. [0037] For simplicity and clarity of illustration, the drawing figures illustrate the general manner of construction, and descriptions and details of well-known features and techniques may be omitted to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the embodiments of the invention. Additionally, elements in the drawing figures are not necessarily drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help improve understanding of examples of embodiments. The same reference numerals in different figures denote the same elements.

[0038] The terms "first," "second," "third," "fourth," and the like in the description and in the claims, if any, are used for distinguishing between similar elements and not necessarily for describing a particular sequential or chronological order. It is to be understood that the terms so used are interchangeable under appropriate circumstances such that the embodiments of the invention described herein are, for example, capable of operation in sequences other than those illustrated or otherwise described herein. Furthermore, the terms "include," and "have," and any variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements is not necessarily limited to those elements, but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus.

[0039] The terms "left," "right," "front," "back," "top," "bottom," "over," "under," and the like in the description and in the claims, if any, are used for descriptive purposes and not necessarily for describing permanent relative positions. It is to be understood that the terms so used are interchangeable under appropriate circumstances such that the embodiments of the invention described herein are, for example, capable of operation in other orientations than those illustrated or otherwise described herein. The term "coupled," as used herein, is defined as directly or indirectly connected in an electrical, physically, mechanical, or other manner. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

[0040] A subsidized call or a totally free call would be ideal to provide a solution where the caller can enjoy a low cost or free call and in return to listen to promotional messages in the native language of the international caller. Most importantly because these concentrated caller groups break down along ethnic lines, businesses and organizations will finally able to reach the ethnic group where other media such as radio, television (TV), printed media, online, and any other form of advertising can not. With the telephone as the user interface and the use of the caller's native language to produce the advertisement, businesses large or small can realize the benefits of culture background targeted advertising with affordable pricing, accurate return on investment (ROI) feedback, scalable campaign, and flexible scheduling. Furthermore an online community portal of each ethnic culture group interacts with the automated system to build brand recognitions and interactions with caller and advertisers.

[0041] In one embodiment, a method of operating a telecommunication system comprises accepting a telephone call from a caller to an access number; determining a geographical location of a callee; presenting the caller with one or more advertisements from an advertisement set, wherein the one or more advertisements are chosen from the advertisement set based on at least the geographical location of the callee; and facilitating a connection between the caller and the callee after beginning to present the caller with the one or more advertisements. In the same or a different embodiment, the telephone call can comprise a video.

[0042] In the same or a different embodiment, an automated telecommunication/internet system enables advertisers to advertise to ethnic groups and immigrant communities by allowing ethnic consumers to place free international or other long distance telephone calls in return for one or more of the following: (1) listening to pre-recorded commercial advertising messages targeted to the ethnic consumer/caller based on geographic and other demographic information provided by the system's evaluation of the caller's and/or callee's area code, exchange, dialed number, and advertising campaign requirements; (2) if caller likes the promotional message being played, he/she can connect to advertiser directly; and (3) providing demographic or other survey information about the ethnic consumer and his or her family. Primarily, the service provides a telecommunication/internet systems and method for cultural background targeted media advertising. In some embodiments, communication can be handled using Voice over Internet Protocol to translate a traditional telephone call into a digital call processed for distribution using the internet.

[0043] With reference to FIGS. 1-3, embodiments of the Automated Ethnic Advertising System on system (hereinafter referred to as the "system" or "Automated Ethnic Advertising System") 600 according to different embodiments of the present invention are shown. With reference to FIGS. 1-3, it is noted that the system 600 may be connected to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) Local Exchange Carrier (LEC) via analog Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) lines or via digital trunks such as T-I or E-I carriers or via IP trunk with Directed Inward Dialing (DID) number. The POTS, digital trunks, and IP trunks may be used for both incoming and outgoing phone calls.

[0044] With reference to FIG. 1, an embodiment of the system 600 discussed above will now be described. As shown in FIG. 1, all parties, including an originating party 12, a called party 13, and a telemarketer/advertiser 15, may place or receive calls using phones 18, 19, and 21, respectively, (hereinafter referred to as "telephones") which are connected to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) via the PSTN 24. In detail, the originating party 12 uses telephone 18 to place a call to the Targeted Advertisement System 600 via the PSTN 24. The Targeted Advertisement System 600 performs interactive voice response operations that will be discussed in detail below and connects the originating party 12 to a called party 13 via the PSTN 24.

[0045] Alternatively, the Targeted Advertisement System 600 may also connect the originating party 12 to the telemarketer/advertiser 15 via the PSTN 24. In addition, the Targeted Advertisement System 600 may connect the originating party 12 to an internal interactive voice response (IVR) technology system (to be discussed below) for the purpose of gathering information about the originating party 12.

[0046] With reference to FIG. 2, another embodiment of the system discussed above will now be described. As shown in FIG. 2, all parties, including an originating party 10, a called party 11, and an IP telemarketer/advertiser 14, may place or receive calls using IP phones 16,17, and 20, respectively, which are phones that are connected to the Internet Protocol (IP) network 22 (and which are hereinafter referred to as "IP phones") via the IP network 22. In detail, the originating party 10 uses IP phone 16 to place a call to the Targeted Advertisement System 600 via the IP network 22. As in the embodiment discussed above, the Targeted Advertisement System 600 performs interactive voice response operations that will be discussed in detail below and connects the originating party 10 to a called party 11 via the IP network 22.

[0047] Alternatively, the Targeted Advertisement System 600 may also connect the originating party 10 to the IP telemarketer/advertiser 14 via the IP network 22. In addition, the Targeted Advertisement System 600 may connect the originating party 10 to an internal FVR system or a voice processing system (to be discussed below) for the purpose of gathering information about the originating party 10.

[0048] Of course a third embodiment of the system is possible. With reference to FIG. 3, this embodiment of the system will now be described. As shown in FIG. 3, all parties, including originating parties 100 and 120 using phones 160 and 180, respectively, called parties 110 and 130 using phones 170 and 190, respectively, and telemarketers/advertisers 105 and 106, using phones 200 and 210, respectively, may place or receive calls via either the PSTN 240 or the IP network 220. An originating party 100 or 120 uses IP phone 160 or telephone 180, respectively, to place a call to the Targeted Advertisement System 600 via either the PSTN 240 or the IP network 220. The Targeted Advertisement System 600 performance interactive voice response operations that will be discussed in detail below and connects the originating party 100 or 120 to a called party 110 or 130 via the PSTN 240, the IP Network 220 or a combination thereof. If a call is placed between a PSTN party and an IP party, a VoIP Gateway provides all interface between the IP Network 220 and the PSTN 240. If both parties are IP parties, the call may be routed directly via the IP network, or via a combination of the IP network and PSTN.

[0049] Alternatively, the Targeted Advertisement System 600 may also connect the originating party 100 or 110 to the IP telemarketer 105 or the telemarketer/advertiser 106 via either the IP network 220 or the PSTN 240 or a combination thereof. In addition, the Targeted Advertisement System 600 may connect the originating party 100 or 120 to an internal IVR system (to be discussed below) for the purpose of gathering information about the originating party 100 or 120.

[0050] With reference to FIG. 4, an embodiment of a method of operation of the Targeted Advertisement System 600 will now be described. Initially, as shown in FIGS. 1-3 in which originating parties 10 or 12 are illustrated as placing calls, the originating parties 10 or 12, who may now be considered callers or consumers, dial an access number into the Targeted Advertisement System 600. In some embodiments, the access number can be a toll-free phone number, or a "1-800" number as better known in the United States. In the same or a different embodiment, the Targeted Advertisement System can have several access numbers, including different access numbers associated with different destination geographical locations. As an example of such an embodiment, a first access number can be configured to handle outbound calls to a first country, while a second access number can be configured to handle outbound calls to a second country. As shown in FIGS. 1-3, these toll free phone calls may be made with either a telephone 18 or an IP phone 16. The Targeted Advertisement System 600 is alerted to the incoming call via a ring signal if the call is received on an analog line or via Common Channel Signaling (CCS) or Channel Associated Signaling (CAS) if the call is received on a digital line.

[0051] As illustrated in FIG. 4, the Targeted Advertisement System then accepts the call (operation 401). Next, the Targeted Advertisement System 600 determines the geographical location of the consumer (operation 402). In one example, the geographical location of the consumer can be determined by retrieving the consumer's phone number and looking up the area code and exchange in a database that relates combinations of area codes and phone numbers with geographical locations, such as towns, cities, or zip codes. In some examples, the consumer's phone number can be referred to as the origin number, while the database can be referred to or form part of a database module. In some examples, operation 402 is optional.

[0052] If Caller ID information is blocked or not available, or if the Targeted Advertisement System cannot otherwise identify the consumer, the Targeted Advertisement System 600 may ask the consumer to enter identification information such as his/her phone number and/or geographical location via Dual Tone Multi Frequency (DTMF) inputs or by speaking the information. If the consumer chooses not to enter his/her information, the system 600 may then either set the consumer's information to an "unknown" state or terminate the call altogether. If the system 600 terminates the call, the system may first inform the consumer that caller ID must not be blocked or that the information discussed above is necessary to proceed, and may prompt the consumer to call back once caller ID has been enabled.

[0053] Targeted Advertisement System then prompts the consumer to enter a destination phone number of a party to be called (operation 403) and determines the geographical location of the party to be called (operation 404). The geographical location of the party to be called can be determined similar to as described above for the geographical location of the consumer, such as by using the entire destination phone number, or by parsing portions of the destination phone number such as a country code and/or an area code. In a different example, the geographical location of the party to be called can be determined based on an access number used by the consumer to access Targeted Advertisement System 600, where the access number is configured to correspond to a specific geographical location.

[0054] Targeted Advertisement System 600 then determines which advertisements to present to the consumer (operation 405). Targeted Advertisement System 600 either prompts the consumer to enter a preferred type of advertisement the consumer may want to listen to, or begins to search its database 670 for advertisements and/or languages for advertisements that are targeted at the consumer's or the called party's geographical location (operation 405). The Targeted Advertisement System 600 makes a list of these advertisements and sorts the list according to which advertisements are most directly targeted at the consumer's or the called party's geographical location. For example, if the Targeted Advertisement System 600 determines that the Consumer is located in Washington, DC, and then determines that there are available advertisements for businesses in the Washington metropolitan area, the Philadelphia metropolitan area and the New York metropolitan area, the Targeted Advertisement System 600 assigns the highest priority to those advertisements for businesses in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.

[0055] The listening history or caller history of the consumer may also be used to determine priority of advertising content. As such, the database 670, or an additional database, such as an account database, may also record which advertisements the consumer has listened to most recently by recording identification information of each advertisement heard by the consumer, the consumer's phone number and geographical location, and call detail records of the consumer's phone calls into the system database 670. The most recently listened to advertisements are then given low priority whereas advertisements that the consumer has not listened to recently, or at all, are given high priority. Thus, if the system 600 determines that it is appropriate to play an advertisement targeted to Washington, DC, the use of the consumer's listening history will additionally determine which advertisement, among those advertisements directed at the Washington, DC metropolitan area, the consumer has not heard in a long time, if ever. The system 600 then determines which advertisement to play at least partly based on the consumer's listening history.

[0056] If all advertisements have been played to the consumer recently or there are no targeted advertisements available for the geographical location of the consumer, the Targeted Advertisement System 600 searches the database 670 for non-targeted advertisements. Once again, these advertisements may be sorted into a list according to how recently the consumer has heard the advertisement, from most recent to least recent. If at least one advertisement has not been heard recently by the consumer, the first advertisement in the list is selected as a suitable advertisement for this consumer.

[0057) In an embodiment of the invention, the system 600 may employ preprogrammed logic to distribute advertisements throughout the system 600. Alternately, this logic may be used to give precedence to specific advertisements. In this case, the logic may be based on, for example, increased fees paid by advertisers to increase the incidence that the advertisements associated with the advertiser are played. Of course, there are additional arrangements that may be made on which the logic may be based on and which are covered by the scope of this application.

[0058] Once the Targeted Advertisement System 600 chooses which advertisement to play, the chosen advertisement is presented to the consumer over the telephone (operation 406). Upon the conclusion of the advertisement, the consumer may have the option of connecting to a call center associated with the advertiser (operation 407). If the consumer chooses to be connected to the advertiser's call center, the consumer is transferred to the advertiser's call center (operation 408) and the Targeted Advertisement System 600 records the consumer's decision. At the conclusion of the consumer's business with the call center, the consumer is reconnected with the Targeted Advertisement System 600 and, if not previously entered, prompted to input the consumer's destination phone number.

[0059] If, on the other hand, the consumer has chosen not to be connected to the advertiser's call center, the consumer is immediately prompted to input the consumer's destination phone number, if not previously entered, and the Targeted Advertisement System 600 records the consumer's decision and connects the consumer to the destination phone number (operation 409).

[0060] Here, it is noted that that the consumer may be prompted to enter the phone number of the party to be called at any point during the telephone call including, the moments after the incoming telephone call is accepted buy the system 600, the moments before or after the playing of the advertisement, moments after the consumer finishes his/her business with the advertiser, or if the consumer chooses to be connected only to the party to be called, the moments after that decision. The disclosure is not limited with respect to the timing of the request to enter the phone number of the party to be called or the destination number.

[0061] If the destination number is not properly input after a predetermined number of iterations or a pre-determined amount of time, the Targeted Advertisement System 600 will time out the consumer, and the call will be terminated. The time out operation should provide the consumer with a sufficient amount of time to attempt to input the destination phone number and/or several warnings that the consumer is about to be timed out. [00621 Once the destination phone number is received, the Targeted Advertisement System 600 can connect the consumer with the called party at the destination phone number (operation 409). In some embodiments, Targeted Advertisement System 600 does not allow the consumer to skip advertisements. In the same of a different embodiment, all connections with the called party are subsidized by the advertisements or otherwise sponsored by advertisers. In other embodiments, Targeted Advertisement System 600 may allow the consumer to skip advertisements. In the same or a different embodiment, if the called party is unavailable, the customer has an option to attempt another call as many times as he/she desires.

[0063] Upon a connection to the called party (operation 409), the Targeted Advertisement System 600 will time the phone call and interrupt or disconnect the phone call once the time of the phone call reaches a predetermined time (operation 410). It is, of course, understood that the system will provide a predetermined number of warnings before the phone call is interrupted.

[0064] Before interruption of the call in operation 410, the consumer may be prompted to listen to an additional advertisement so as to extend the length of the telephone call. If the consumer chooses to extend the telephone call, the Targeted Advertisement System 600 may advise the called party that they will be put on hold and may play a second advertisement to the consumer. Alternatively, the advertisement may simply broadcast to the called party as well. If on the other hand, the consumer chooses not to extend the telephone call, the Targeted Advertisement System 600 proceeds to disconnection. Once the call is terminated, the Targeted Advertisement System can record the consumer's choices and the length of the consumer's telephone call.

[0065J According to an embodiment of the invention, the system 600 may be programmed such that the basic call model does not exceed 11 minutes. Within that arrangement, 1 minute could be devoted to two thirty second commercials and ten minutes of call transfer time. [0066| In embodiments where the consumer has the chance to extend his/her call time, it is understood that the consumer may also have the opportunity to designate the number of advertisements he/she wishes to listen to so as to preemptively secure a predetermine amount of additional telephone call time beyond the 11 minutes as discussed above. In other words, if the consumer wishes to secure 30 minutes of additional telephone call time, the consumer may instruct the system 600 to play a sufficient number of advertisements so as to build up his/her allocated number of minutes. Further, it is understood that the opportunity to secure a desired amount of telephone time may be available to the consumer at the beginning of the consumer's original telephone call into the system 600. Based on the desired amount of telephone time, system 600 can determine a corresponding quantity or type of advertisements to present to the consumer. The advantage here being that the consumer's connection to the called party does not have to be interrupted by the system 600 asking the consumer if the consumer desires additional telephone call time and then forcing the called party to either "hang on" while the consumer listens to advertisements or to themselves listen to the advertisements. Indeed, as shown in FIG. 4, once the telephone call time reaches the predetermined time, the call is interrupted or disconnected (operation 410).

[0067] In embodiments where the consumer enters the phone number of the party to be called before the playing of the advertisement, Targeted Advertisement System 600 could use the phone number of the party to be called to determine a geographical location of the party to be called. Targeted Advertisement System 600 can then use the geographical location of the party to be called to choose which advertisement to play to the consumer.

10068] In a different example, where different access numbers correspond to different geographical locations, Targeted Advertisement System 600 can determine the geographical location of the party to be called based on the access number used by the consumer to contact Targeted Advertisement System 600. Targeted Advertisement System 600 can- then use the geographical location of the party to be called to choose which advertisement to play to the consumer.

|0069] Another embodiment of the invention is illustrated in FIG. 5. Here, elements, features, and operations previously described will not be re-explained. As shown in FIG. 5, after the Targeted Advertisement System 600 retrieves the consumer's phone number and determines the consumer's and/or the called party's geographical location, the Targeted Advertisement System 600 either searches its database 670 for advertisements that are targeted at the consumer's and/or called party's geographical location (operation 13), enters into a process by which demographic information is retrieved (operation 11), or begins to conduct a survey (operation 12) of the consumer's product preference.

[0070] If the Targeted Advertisement System 600 chooses to begin operation 13, the method continues according to the embodiments described above. However, if the system 600 begins either operation 11 or 12, as shown in FIG. 5, the system 600 performs the gathering of the demographic information, which may include information such as the consumer's age, ethnicity, geographic location, income, etc. or conducts the survey in which the consumer may be asked what types of products or service; the consumer is likely to be interested in. In either case, upon completion of the gathering of the demographic information or the conducting of the survey, the Targeted Advertisement System 600 then records the information gleaned from the consumer (operation 14) for use during later calls or to provide to potential advertisers in return for a fee.

[0071] While FIG. 5 illustrates that the gathering of demographic data (operation 11) and the conducting of the survey (operation 12) are different operations and occur independently of one another, according to an embodiments of the invention, operations 11 and 12 may be performed either simultaneously or sequentially. Of course it is understood that whether these operations can be performed simultaneously or sequentially is a question to be determined based on an amount of time that is predetermined as being a reasonable amount of the consumer's call time.

10072] It is also understood that the question of whether the Targeted Advertisement System 600 adopts the method according to the embodiment of FIGS. 3 and 4 or FIG. 5 may be determined based on consumer history, including whether the consumer is a first time caller to the system 600. If the consumer is a first time caller to the system 600, the system 600 may determine that gleaning demographic or survey information from the consumer on the first call is more valuable than exposing advertisements to the consumer based solely on the geographic location of the consumer that the system 600 understands from the consumer's phone number. In other words, it is more likely that the system will be able to pick advertisements that are more directly targeted towards the consumer, and thus, more valuable to the advertiser, upon the consumer's subsequent calls into the system 600 if the system 600 has the consumer's demographic and/or survey information on file.

[00731 In some embodiments, the consumer need not have to establish an account to use the Targeted Advertisement System 600. In another embodiment, the Targeted Advertisement System 600 need not establish accounts for any user in order to provide service.

[0074] In another embodiment of the invention, the Targeted Advertisement System 600 may allow the consumer to establish a consumer or caller account with the system 600. Such an account would be accessible to the consumer via internet, email, telephone, regular mail service, or a combination thereof. The system 600 would maintain a database associated with a pin number of the consumer so that the consumer could access his/her account from various telephones numbers. In addition, the consumer would have the ability to add telephone call time to his or her account by simply screening advertisements over whatever telephone the consumer is using, by screening advertisements online via an internet connection, by paying predetermined fee, or a combination thereof. The consumer, having established a sizable bank of telephone minutes could then call the system 600, bypass the methods described above with reference to FIGS. 4-5 by entering his/her pin number at a prompt, and then complete a call at any time. Such a call would then have an automatically and, likely, a substantially extended available call time.

[0075] It is understood that a web site such as described above may be employed as a portal to each ethnic consumer group to access their accounts and to get additional information from the internet as needed. FIG. 6 provides an integrated view of a community portal. As shown in FIG. 6, the website would provide a field 100 for a consumer to enter a login so as to access his/her account and an additional field including a link 200 for new consumers that would lead to a registration page. In addition, the website may include a search function 500 and links 400 to common interest websites. Additional fields 700 may be available for banner ads from which additional advertising revenue may be gleaned.

[0076] According to this embodiment of the invention, once a returning consumer has entered his/her login, or a new consumer has registered for an account, the consumer may be directed to a new web page, where the consumer may monitor his/her account. Here, links to advertisements, links to a web page where the consumer may add telephone time by paying directly, links to a web page where the consumer may monitor his/her account, and links to consumer surveys may be made available to the consumer.

[0077] It is understood that if the consumer chooses to view ads by clicking on the links, another web page or equivalent, devoted to playing the advertisement, will open. At that point, the consumer may opt to play the advertisement by hitting a play button or a play link. During the playing of the advertisement, the consumer will have the option of pausing or stopping the playing at any time. In addition, a link to the advertiser's web page or to a web page devoted to the product being advertised would be made prominent. Once the advertisement is completed, the consumer will have the option of accessing the advertiser's web page or the web page devoted to the product being advertised or of closing the web page devoted to playing the advertisement and returning to the account. Meanwhile, the Targeted Advertisement System 600 will record that the consumer has accessed and played the advertisement online and added a predetermined amount of available call time to the consumer's account.

[0078] It is further understood that if the consumer chooses to access the web page where the consumer may add telephone time by paying directly, still yet another new web page devoted to presenting fields into which the consumer may enter payment information will open. Such a web page will provide fields to enter an amount of desired additional call time, field to enter credit card information associated with the amount of desired call time, and fields for verifying the credit card user's identity.

[0079] According to another embodiment of the invention, the Targeted Advertisement System 600 may be made available to users of public pay telephones. As such, the option of dialing into the Targeted Advertisement System 600 with a toll free number will be shown in the instructions listed on the phone. Once the consumer dials the toll free number, the Targeted Advertisement System 600 can operate in much the same method as that which is described above with reference to FIGs. 1-4.

[0080] With reference to FIG. 7, a schematic illustration of the Targeted Advertisement System 600 will now be described. As illustrated, an automated telecommunication system connected to a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and/or an IP Network comprises a Targeted Advertisement System to receive telephone calls from consumers; to play at least one advertisement to the consumer, wherein the advertisement is chosen from a set of advertisements based at least partly upon a geographical location of the consumer, a geographical location of the party to be called, and/or preprogrammed logic in the system; to gather demographic and/or survey information from the consumer; and/or to connect the consumer to a called party for a predetermined period of time. The system comprises a first node from which the consumer makes the toll free call into the Targeted Advertisement System, and a second node at which the called party receives the connected consumer.

[0081] The Targeted Advertisement System connects to callers, called parties and telemarketers using the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) via multiple analog or digital trunks 601 as well as to callers, called parties, and telemarketers using the IP Network via an Ethernet Interface 613. The trunks 601 and Ethernet Interface 613 connect to a switch that routes PSTN trunks and IP packet circuits to individual circuits.

[0082] Each circuit has an inbound path, which carries a voice band signal to Dual Tone Multi- Frequency (DTMF) Detector and an Automated Speech Recognition (ASI) module, respectively. The DTMF Detector monitors the voice band signal for the presence of DTMF tones. When a tone is detected, DTMF Detector forwards the identified tone to a central processor. Similarly, the ASR module monitors the voice band signal for speech signals. Each time a word is identified, the word is sent to the control processor.

[0083] Each circuit also has an outbound path. The source of this path is controlled by switch which is in turn controlled by the central processor. The outbound path may either connect to recorded message storage or the Text to Speech Synthesizer (TSS). The control processor instructs each of these units to play a speech selection out to the outbound voice path.

[0084] Central Processor interprets DTMF digits and interpreted speech in the context of the interactive Voice Response process, and stores information in the database 670 for later use. Database 670 also stores information that is used to convert phone numbers to geographical regions, as well as information about available advertisements, number of times they should be played and to whom, and to whom they have been played, as well as survey information and other information that is collected and stored for later extraction, as discussed above.

[00851 In addition, the Targeted Advertisement System 600 also operates an associated website on the Internet, as shown. This website is available to be accessed by callers, called parties, and telemarketers/advertisers whether these groups access the system via the PSTN or the IP network. Further, the web site provides each of the ethnic groups with access to the system so that individual members of these groups may establish accounts and/or modify their existing accounts via the Internet in their native languages.

[0086] In an embodiment of the invention, illustrated in FIG. 8, the Targeted Advertisement System 600 may employ the capability to use Voice Over Packet technology to place phone calls via the internet, thereby saving some of the cost of the toll call. Voice Over Packet technology refers to Voice over IP (VoIP) technology, Voice over ATM technology, Voice over Frame Relay technology, etc., and/or a combination thereof. According to this embodiment, in which VoIP will be used as an exemplary network, the method of operating an automated telecommunication system, comprises accepting an incoming telephone call from a consumer to be identified by the system, the consumer being prompted to enter a telephone number of a called party (operation 1001), playing at least one advertisement to the consumer, the advertisement being chosen from a set of advertisements based upon the identity of the consumer, the geographical location of the called party, and/or preprogrammed logic in the system (operation 1002), connecting the consumer to an advertiser associated with the advertisement (operation 1003) and then to the called party (operation 1004) or connecting the consumer to only the called party (operation 1005) based on a preference of the consumer (operation 1003), and terminating the connection between the consumer and the called party after a predetermined time (operation 1006), wherein the connecting the consumer to the called party comprises routing the connection over a Voice over IP (VoIP) network.

|0087] The routing comprises automatically determining whether to route the call via a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) or a VoIP network based upon the destination of the call and network availability (operation 1005). In addition, the routing comprises employing first and second gateways associated with the system, the first gateway being local to the system and the second gateway being local to the called party (operation 1006).

[0088] In greater detail, the Targeted Advertisement System 600 decides whether to route the call via a PSTN or a VoIP network based upon the destination of the call and network availability. For example, an international phone call via the PSTN may be cost prohibitive, but an international phone call via a VoIP network should be far more cost effective.

[0089] Also, the Targeted Advertisement System 600 will have VoIP gateways, or will be contractually connected to VoIP gateways in many locations. That way, if a consumer in Washington. DC calls into the Targeted Advertisement System 600, and wishes to be connected to, say, a PSTN connected telephone number in London, the Targeted Advertisement System 600 may recognize that it will be cost effective to route the call once via a VoIP network. In London, the VoIP gateway receives a signal from the system and then, since the VoIP gateway in London is connected to the London area PSTN, connects the consumer with the telephone number in London at local telephone call rates.

[0090] In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, it is understood that the Targeted Advertisement System 600 could itself act as the VoIP gateway, as shown in FIG. 8, where the Targeted Advertisement System 600, as described above, additionally includes the necessary software programming and hardware. Indeed, according to an embodiment of the invention, with enough systems in place at various geographic locations, a need to contract with external VoIP gateways would be alleviated. Furthermore, it is understood that embodiment of the invention contemplate the use of Voice Over Packet Network (VOPN) technology as opposed to or in combination with VoIP.

[0091] Lastly, it is noted that there are still more applications to which the various embodiments of the present invention may be applied to. One such application is that employment advertisements may be played to a targeted audience in a particular geographical region at particular times of the days. The advertisements could be played, for example, when trying to hire a part-time person for a particular shift. The advertisements would be programmed to play in those geographical regions surrounding the location of the job at the time of the shifts so as to guarantee that people who may be looking for that type of work may be home to hear the advertisements.

|0092] Another application is the use of promotional codes. Here, a company advertises the phone number of the Targeted Advertisement System 600 and provides a promotional word or code. When a caller calls into the system they are prompted to enter or say the promotional word or code, which would initiate the playing of a certain ad or type of ad.

[0093] Still yet another application is the use of toll-free advertising lines for specific purposes. As an example, an employment advertisement may be hosted on a separate toll-free number. The Targeted Advertisement System 600 either directs the advertisement on a targeted basis or plays everyone who calls the number the same advertisement. This application may be applied to traffic reports, stock information, and political advertising, to name just a few possibilities.

[0094] Although a few embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the claims and their equivalents. [0095] Although the invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made without departing from the scope of the invention. For example, to one of ordinary skill in the art, it will be readily apparent that a geographical location of a caller could be established by, for example, Global Positioning System (GPS) information associated with the telephone of the caller. Additional examples have been given in the foregoing description. Accordingly, the disclosure of embodiments of the invention is intended to be illustrative of the scope of the invention and is not intended to be limiting. It is intended that the scope of the invention shall be limited only to the extent required by the appended claims. To one of ordinary skill in the art, it will be readily apparent that the system and method for customer background targeted media advertising discussed herein may be implemented in a variety of embodiments, and that the foregoing discussion of certain of these embodiments does not necessarily represent a complete description of all possible embodiments. Rather, the detailed description of the drawings, and the drawings themselves, disclose at least one preferred embodiment of the invention, and may disclose alternative embodiments of the invention.

[0096] All elements claimed in any particular claim are essential to the invention claimed in that particular claim. Consequently, replacement of one or more claimed elements constitutes reconstruction and not repair. Additionally, benefits, other advantages, and solutions to problems have been described with regard to specific embodiments. The benefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any element or elements that may cause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become more pronounced, however, are not to be construed as critical, required, or essential features or elements of any or all of the claims.

[0097] Moreover, embodiments and limitations disclosed herein are not dedicated to the public under the doctrine of dedication if the embodiments and/or limitations: (1) are not expressly claimed in the claims; and (2) are or are potentially equivalents of express elements and/or limitations in the claims under the doctrine of equivalents.

Claims

CLAIMS What is claimed is:

1. A method of operating a telecommunication system, the method comprising: accepting a telephone call from a caller to an access number; determining a geographical location of a callee; presenting the caller with one or more advertisements from an advertisement set, wherein the one or more advertisements are chosen from the advertisement set based on at least the geographical location of the callee; and facilitating a connection between the caller and the callee after beginning to present the caller with the one or more advertisements.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: interrupting the connection between the caller and the callee.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein: the connection between the caller and the callee is interrupted after a predetermined time.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein: the predetermined time is based on at least one of: a quantity of the one or more advertisements; and a duration of the one or more advertisements.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein: the geographical location of the callee is determined based on at least one of: at least a portion of a destination telephone number; and a geographical location correlated to the access number.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein: presenting the caller with one or more advertisements further comprises: choosing the one or more advertisements based on a parameter set comprising at least one of: a telephone number of the caller; a geographical location of the caller; a caller preferred type of advertisement; a caller history; a priority for advertisements not recently presented to the caller a preprogrammed logic for choosing particular advertisements from the advertisement set; a caller ID; and an identification information entered by the caller.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein: the geographical location of the caller is determined based on at least one of: the telephone number of the caller; and a GPS information associated with a telephone unit of the caller.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein: a language of the one or more advertisements is determined based on at least one of: the geographical location of the caller; and at least a portion of the parameter set.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein: presenting the caller with the one or more advertisements comprises: determining an amount of telephone call time desired by the caller; and selecting a duration of the one or more advertisements to correspond to the amount of telephone call time desired by the caller.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: facilitating a communication between the caller and an advertiser associated with at least one of the one or more advertisements.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein facilitating the communication between the caller and the advertiser associated with the advertisement comprises: presenting the caller with an option of being connected to a call center associated with the advertiser; facilitating a connection to the call center upon an acceptance of the option by the caller; and facilitating the connection between the caller and the callee upon a conclusion of the connection to the call center.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein facilitating the connection between the caller and the callee comprises: timing the connection between the caller and the callee; and providing at least one warning to the caller related to a remainder of a predetermined time for the connection between the caller and the callee..

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein facilitating the connection between the caller and the callee comprises: prompting the caller to receive an additional number of advertisements to extend a predetermined time for the connection between the caller and the callee.

14. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: providing a caller account correlated to the caller.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein: the caller account comprises information related to at least one of: a preferred type of advertisement; a caller history; a priority for advertisements not recently presented to the caller; and a preprogrammed logic for choosing particular advertisements from the advertisement set.

16. The method according to claim 14, wherein providing the caller account further comprises: allowing the caller to accumulate telephone call time into the caller account by at least one of: screening telephonic advertisements; screening internet advertisements over an internet webpage associated with the caller account; and paying a predetermined fee.

17. The method according to claim 14, further comprising: receiving an information from the caller comprising at least one of: a demographic information; and a survey information comprising at least one of: a product preference information; and a service preference information; and storing the information in the caller account.

18. The method according to claim 17 wherein: a decision for receiving the information from the caller is based on a caller history.

19. The method according to claim 1, wherein facilitating the connection between the caller and the callee comprises: routing the connection over at least one of a VoIP network and a PSTN network based at least in part on a network availability and a destination telephone number of the callee.

20. A telecommunication system comprising: a database module configured to present a consumer with a selection comprising at least one of: at least one survey configured to gather information related to the consumer, wherein the information related to the consumer comprises at least one of: a demographic information; a product preference; and a service preference; and one or more advertisements chosen from an advertisement set; and a communications module coupled to the database module and configured to: receive a telephone call to an access number from a consumer, determine a geographical location of a called party; interact with the database module to present the selection to the consumer; facilitate a connection of the consumer to the called party for a subsidized period of time based on at least one of: a quantity of the one or more advertisements presented to the consumer by the database module; a number of surveys presented to the consumer by the database module; and a predetermined duration; and interrupt the telephone call upon the expiration of the subsidized period of time; wherein the one or more advertisements are chosen based on at least the geographical location of the called party.

21. The telecommunication system according to claim 20, wherein: the geographical location of the called party is determined based on at least one of: a destination telephone number; and a geographical location correlated to the access number.

22. The telecommunication system according to claim 20, wherein: the one or more advertisements are chosen based on at least one of: a telephone number of the consumer; a geographical location of the consumer; a language of the geographical location of the consumer a language of the geographical location of the called party; a consumer preferred type of advertisement; a consumer history; an identification information entered by the consumer; a priority for advertisements not recently presented to the consumer; and a preprogrammed logic for choosing particular advertisements from the advertisement set.

23. The telecommunication system according to claim 20, wherein: the communications module is configured to provide warnings to the caller related to a remainder of the subsidized period of time.

24. The telecommunication system according to claim 20, wherein: the communications module is configured to prompt the caller to receive an additional number of advertisements to extend the subsidized period of time.

25. The telecommunication system according to claim 20, wherein the telephone call is coupled to the communications module via at least one of: a PSTN network; a VoPN network; and a VoIP network.

26. The telecommunication system according to claim 20, further comprising: a central processor; wherein: the database module comprises at least one of: a recorded message storage; and a text to speech synthesizer; the communications module comprises: an inbound path configured to carry a voice band signal to at least one of: a DTMF Detector; and an Automated Speech Recognition module; and an outbound path coupled to a switch; the central processor is configured to control the switch to connect the outbound path of the communications module to one of the recorded message storage and the text to speech synthesizer of the database module.

27. The telecommunication system according to claim 20, further comprising: an account database coupled to the database module and configured to contain an account related to the consumer.

28. The telecommunication system according to claim 27, further comprising: an internet webpage; wherein: the account database is coupled to the internet; and the account in the account database is accessible to the consumer through the internet webpage.

29. The telecommunication system according to claim 28, wherein: the account database is configured to update a telephone connection time parameter in the account in response to at least one of: a broadcast to the consumer of advertisements from the advertisement set via the internet webpage; and a payment authorization entered by the consumer via the internet webpage.

30. The telecommunication system according to claim 27, wherein: the account is accessible to the consumer through a telephone unit of the consumer; the account database is configured to update a telephone connection time parameter in the account in response to at least one of: a broadcast to the consumer of advertisements from the advertisement set via the telephone unit of the consumer; and a payment authorization entered by the consumer.

1. A method of operating a telecommunication system, the method comprising: receiving a telephone call from a caller to an access number; receiving an origin number associated with the telephone call; generating a caller account correlated to the caller; presenting an option for the caller to accumulate telephone call time into the caller account by at least one of: screening telephonic advertisements; screening internet advertisements over an internet webpage associated with the caller account; and paying a predetermined fee; determining a geographical location of a party to be called; presenting the caller with at least one of: an option to update the caller account through at least one of: a demographic information of the caller; and a survey related at least one of: a product preference information; and a service preference information; and one or more advertisements from an advertisement set, wherein the one or more advertisements are chosen from the advertisement set based on at least one of: the geographical location of the party to be called; the origin number; a geographical location of the caller; a caller preference for a type of advertisement; a caller history; a language of the geographical location of the caller; a language of the geographical location of the party to be called; a priority for advertisements not recently presented to the caller; a preprogrammed logic for choosing particular advertisements from the advertisement set based on preferential arrangements with advertisers; a caller ID; and an identification information entered by the caller; presenting an option to the caller for a connection to an advertiser associated with at least one advertisement of the one or more advertisements; facilitating a connection between the caller and the party to be called for a predetermined time based on at least one of: the option to update the caller account; and the one or more advertisements; timing the connection between the caller and the party to be called; providing at least one warning to the caller related to a remainder of the predetermined time; prompting the caller to receive an additional number of advertisements to extend the predetermined time; and interrupting the connection between the caller and the party to be called after the predetermined time; wherein the geographical location of the party to be called is determined based on at least one of: a geographical location correlated to the access number; and at least a portion of a destination number of the party to be called.

32. The method according to claim 31, wherein: presenting the caller with the one or more advertisements comprises: determining an amount of telephone call time desired by the caller; and presenting at least one of a quantity and a duration of the one or more advertisements to correspond to the amount of telephone call time desired by the caller.