LOCAL ON-HOLD INFORMATION SERVICE WITH USER-CONTROLLED PERSONALIZED MENU

A telephone user sets up a “personalized” menu identifying a set of information options from which he or she desires to select when placed on-hold in a telephone system. The user's personal preferences are then saved. When the party later makes a call to a telephone system or is called, and then is placed on-hold, the party's telephone service provider or local equipment accesses the user's personalized menu and offers the one or more information options as defined in the menu. In an illustrative embodiment, the personalized menu options are voiced over the telephone line and the user then makes selections using keypad (i.e. DTMF signaling) or voice input. A response may be interrupted to make another menu selection, or to repeat the current response. If the response being played has not completed when the other party returns, that response is suspended and may be completed when the user is placed back on hold or the call is completed.