Patent ID: 6804224
Filing Date: 2004-10-12
Classification: H04M

Abstract:
A system for providing a telephone connection between a caller telecommunications device and a callee telecommunications device using a packet-switched data network, the system comprising:a local service host having a user record to match an extension identifier to the callee telecommunications device, and a local access identifier to connect to the local service host from the caller telecommunications device; a caller gateway having a network interface operable to connect to the packet-switched data network and a first public-switched telephone network (PSTN) interface operable to connect to the caller telecommunications device; a callee gateway having a second network interface operable to connect to the packet-switched data network and a second PSTN interface operable to connect to the callee telecommunications device; the caller gateway operable to open a first PSTN connection to the caller telecommunications device and a data channel to the local access host when the caller telecommunications device communicates the local access identifier; the caller and callee gateways comprising a telephony signal to data packet converter to communicate voice signals from the caller and callee telecommunications devices as voice-over-data packets on the data network, and a data packet to telephony signal converter to communicate voice-over-data packets on the data network as voice signals to the caller and callee telecommunications devices; and a telephone connection controller operable to receive the extension identifier on the data channel connection to the caller gateway, to open a second PSTN connection between the callee gateway and the callee telecommunications device, and to open a voice-over-data channel between the caller gateway and the callee gateway, wherein the telephone connection between the caller and callee telecommunications devices includes the first and second PSTN connections and the voice-over-data channel.