ON-HOLD ACTIVITY SELECTION APPARATUS AND METHOD

An on-hold activity selection apparatus and method that allows an on-hold party to select an on-hold activity, from a menu of on-hold activities, with which to be entertained and/or informed. The on-hold activity selection apparatus detects the occurrence of an on-hold condition in a communication between a first party terminal and a second party terminal. In response to detecting the on-hold condition, the on-hold activity selection apparatus provides a menu of available on-hold activities to the terminal which is placed on-hold. If a reply is received from the on-hold terminal identifying a selected on-hold activity, the on-hold activity selection apparatus then provides the on-hold terminal with the selected activity. The menu of available on-hold activities may be based on profile information, corresponding to the on-hold terminal, stored in a database. The on-hold activities may include listening to music, advertisements, sports, news, viewing television broadcasts, graphical presentations, prerecorded video messages, reading textual messages, playing video games, browsing the Internet, and the like. The on-hold activities may include live feeds and/or prerecorded activities.