A system (10) and method (40) for providing audible caller information
to telephone service subscribers is presented. The system (10) includes
a pre-processor (28) that converts textual caller information from a first
data format to a second data format suitable for text-to-speech synthesis (TTS).
The pre-processor (28) can be incorporated in a service node/intelligent
peripheral (SN/IP) (24) in an advanced intelligent network (AIN). In this
configuration, the pre-processor (28) can be used to convert caller-ID with
name database entries into a predetermined TTS format. The TTS formatted information
can be provided to a TTS synthesized (30) included in the SN/IP (24).
In conjunction with a switching service point (SSP) (20), the pre-processor
(28) can provide a talking call-waiting feature to subscribers with significantly
improved intelligibility.