Patent ID: 6285745
Filing Date: 2001-09-04
Classification: H04M,H04Q

Abstract:
A communications system comprising:a first switched telephone network having central office switching systems connected by trunks and having subscriber lines connected to central offices in the network providing connection through the first switched telephone network between telephone terminals connected to the subscriber lines:a second switched telephone network having central office switching systems connected by trunks and having subscriber lines connected to central offices in the second switched network providing connection through the second switched telephone network between telephone terminals connected to the subscriber lines of the second switched network;each of the first and second switched telephone networks including a centralized messaging network for addressably storing in digital form analog originated messages directed to respective subscriber lines; andan Internet comprising multiple remotely spaced computer networks of diverse types using varying protocols within the computer networks, the computer networks being connected together by links and using a common protocol to communicate from computer network to computer network on the links to provide connectionless packet service between the computer networks;each of the centralized messaging networks being connected to the Internet through an addressable protocol translating interface communicating with the Internet using the common protocol for transferring at least one of said messages stored in one centralized messaging network to another centralized messaging network; andwherein a transferred message is addressed to a recipient interface by an address for that interface and the transferred message includes an address identifying a subscriber line in the telephone network to which said recipient interface is connected, the address of the identified subscriber line being used by the centralized messaging network connected to the recipient interface to retrievably store the transferred message.