Importance

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Abstract

Methods and systems are provided for utilizing voicemail messages to notify a subscriber of electronic mail receipt. A message notification and consolidation module monitors e-mail received, read, deleted or otherwise disposed of by an e-mail receiver (subscriber). Upon receipt of an e-mail message, the message notification and consolidation module constructs an e-mail notification message for depositing into the subscriber's voicemail system for alerting the subscriber that the subscriber has received an electronic mail message. At the beginning of the notification message, a unique identification tone is provided for identifying and locating the notification message. If the e-mail receiver disposes of a given e-mail message, or if the e-mail receiver receives a subsequent e-mail message, the message notification and consolidation module may use the identification tone to locate a previous notification message deposited in the subscriber's voicemail box to either delete the notification message or to deposit a consolidated notification message containing information regarding multiple e-mail messages received by the subscriber.

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First Claim