Patent US 5,598,461

A personalized annunciating signaling telephone unit delivers a first outgoing message to a caller identifying a plurality of codes which may be entered by the caller in order to identify the particular party the caller wishes to talk to. Once the caller enters one of the codes, a particular ring signal is generated at the other end of the caller to indicate the person associated with particular code whom the caller wishes to talk to. The user of the unit may record each particular ring signal activated by the various codes input by a caller. In this way, each particular ring signal may be a customized prerecorded verbal message, a particular tone, or any particular prerecorded sound which is reproduced by a speaker of the unit upon receiving the particular code from the caller. Once the ring signal is generated, a timer is activated to activate the second outgoing message at the termination thereof indicating that the caller may leave a message which is recorded by the unit.