Patent ID: 8553681
Filing Date: 2013-10-08
Classification: H04M,H04Q,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A method comprising: detecting an off-hook condition of a calling station, the calling station associated with a telephone number of the calling station; subsequent to detecting the off-hook condition, receiving dialed digits from the calling station, the dialed digits indicating a call request and a telephone number of a called party; providing a request to a routing database, the request including at least a portion of the telephone number of the called party; receiving in response to the request an identity of a gateway to the called party; sending a first signaling message over a packet-switched network to the gateway using the identity of the gateway, the first signaling message including the telephone number of the called party; receiving the first signaling message at the gateway; formulating an SS sending the SS receiving at the gateway over the connection to the PSTN system an indication that the called party is at least one of busy or available; when the indication received at the gateway indicates that the calling party is busy, sending a second signaling message from the gateway over the packet-switched network indicating the called party is busy; when the indication received at the gateway indicates that the called party is available, sending a third signaling message from the gateway over the packet-switched network indicating the called party is available; recording billing information associated with the call request.