Importance

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Abstract

A telephone system with extension telephones and voice mail features allows an extension owner to monitor a message as it is being left in voice mail. The monitoring method may be implemented in a system with a simple extension telephone or with an extension including a second channel of communication to a display screen. If the monitoring begins later than the time when the caller began leaving the message, monitoring may commence at a midpoint of the message or, with a delay, from the beginning of the message, playing back at a rate faster than real time to catch up with real time. For extensions with a display screen, each call received by the system for the extension creates an entry in a call log for the extension and, for each such entry where a message was left, the called party may play back the message by selecting on the screen the call log entry for that call.

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First Claim