Patent ID: 9369586
Filing Date: 2016-06-14
CPC Classification: H04L,H04M

Claim Text:
1. A method for telephony, comprising: receiving at an Internet telephony service provider a subscriber request from an Internet Protocol, IP, telephony user terminal which is directly connected to the Internet telephony service provider via a packet switched data link to initiate a communication to a telephone number; in response to the subscriber request, querying a first database to check if the first database holds a record for the telephone number; if the first database holds a record for the telephone number, obtaining the record and: if the record holds a URI associated with an endpoint user terminal telephone number, initiating the communication to that URI; and if the record indicates that there is no URI associated with the endpoint user terminal telephone number, initiating the communication to the endpoint user terminal telephone number via a public switched telephone network (PSTN); if the first database does not hold a record for the telephone number, sending a request to one or more subsequent databases of records associating endpoint user terminal telephone numbers of subscribers with endpoint user terminal URIs, each URI being uniquely associated with a subscriber, to retrieve a URI of the endpoint user terminal to which communications to the telephone number should be initiated; if the one or more subsequent databases holds a record of a URI of the endpoint user terminal telephone number, the one or more subsequent databases responds to or notifies the Internet telephony service provider with the URI of the endpoint user terminal; if none of the one or more subsequent databases holds a record of a URI of the endpoint user terminal telephone number, the Internet telephony service provider is notified with a negative response that no record of a URI associated with the endpoint user terminal telephone number was found; and upon receiving the notification or response from the one or more subsequent database, storing the URI or the negative response, as appropriate, in the first database in a record for the telephone number.