Receiving, recording and forwarding voice messages

1 . A method in a called party phone, comprising:

receiving a call and corresponding caller ID information;

connecting to the received call;

playing a pre-recorded message to the calling party;

terminating the call;

forwarding call information including at least one of caller ID information and time of call.

2 . The method of claim 1 further including recording a message from the calling party and forwarding the recorded message as a part of the call information.

3 . The method of claim 2 further including storing the recorded message in digital format.

4 . The method of claim 3 further including attaching the recorded message in the digital format to an email message.

5 . The method of claim 1 further including generating outgoing call signals to establish a communication link with a specified landline phone for delivery of the caller information to the specified landline phone.

6 . The method of claim 2 further including generating outgoing call signals to establish a communication link with a cellular phone for delivery to a specified recipient utilizing a data packet protocol wherein the call information is transmitted within a payload field.

7 . The method of claim 2 further including generating outgoing call signals to establish a communication link with a voice mail server for retrieval by a specified recipient wherein the call information including at least one of time of call, caller ID and recorded message is uploaded to the voice mail server containing call information.

8 . The method of claim 2 further including generating outgoing call signals to establish a communication link with an email server to deliver a text message to the email server for further delivery to a specified recipient in the form of an email message.

9 . The method of claim 2 further including generating outgoing call signals to establish a communication link with an SMS message server to deliver a text message to the SMS message server for further deliver to a specified recipient in the form of an SMS message.

10 . The method of claim 1 wherein the method is performed by one of a cellular phone, a landline phone, or a private branch exchange (PBX) phone.

11 . A called party phone, comprising:

transceiver for receiving a call and corresponding caller ID information;

circuitry for connecting to the received call;

circuitry for playing a pre-recorded message to the calling party, wherein the called party phone is operable to play a message to the calling party and to terminate the call upon receiving an indication that the calling party is no longer connected to the call; and

circuitry for forwarding call information including at least one of caller ID information and time of call to a message target agent, which message target element is specified at a time prior to the call.

12 . The called party phone of claim 11 wherein the called party phone is operable to record a message from the calling party and forward the recorded message to the message target element.

13 . The called party phone of claim 12 wherein the called party phone is operable to record and store the recorded message in a digital format.

14 . The called party phone of claim 13 wherein the called party phone is operable to attach the recorded message in the digital format to an email message.

15 . The called party phone of claim 12 wherein the called party phone is operable generate outgoing call signals to establish a communication link with a specified landline phone for delivery to the specified landline phone.

16 . The called party phone of claim 12 further wherein the called party phone is operable to generate outgoing call signals to establish a communication link with a specified cellular phone for delivery to a specified recipient.

17 . The called party phone of claim 12 further wherein the called party phone is operable to generate outgoing call signals to establish a communication link with a specified voice mail server for retrieval by a specified recipient.

18 . The called party phone of claim 12 wherein the called party phone is operable to generate outgoing call signals to establish a communication link with a specified email server to deliver a text message to the email server for further delivery to a specified recipient in the form of an email message.

19 . The called party phone of claim 12 wherein the called party phone is operable to generate outgoing call signals to establish a communication link with a specified SMS message server to deliver a text message to the SMS message server for further deliver to a specified recipient in the form of an SMS message.

20 . The called party phone of claim 12 wherein the called party phone comprises one of a cellular phone, a landline phone, or a private branch exchange (PBX) phone.

21 . A called party phone, comprising:

circuitry for receiving message target element information;

transceiver for receiving a call and corresponding caller ID information;

circuitry for connecting to the received call;

circuitry for playing a pre-recorded message to the calling party, wherein the called party phone is operable to play a message to the calling party and to terminate the call upon receiving an indication that the calling party is no longer connected to the call; and

circuitry for forwarding caller ID information and time of call to the message target element based upon the message target element information.

22 . The called party phone of claim 21 wherein the message target element comprises one of a cellular phone, a landline phone, a PBX phone, a voice mail server, an email server, and an SMS message server.

23 . The called party phone of claim 21 wherein the called party phone is operable to forward a recorded message from the calling party to an ordered list of message target elements based upon the message target element information.

24 . The called party phone of claim 23 wherein the calling party information comprises a text message and further wherein the message target element is one of an email server or an SMS message server.