Jingle Networks has been awarded a US Patent "for providing telephone directory assistance service in which a telephone user calls to the system and the system will, based on the requested number or type of service, hear a recorded advertisement,” reports TechCrunch. The service is better known to users as 1-800-FREE-411.

The company has raised $60 million and is pulling in at least 17 million calls a month, grabbing over 6 percent of the US market for directory assistance calls. Some mobile phone service providers have blocked the service.
Google and AT&T have tried providing free directory assistance in the past.