Patent ID: 8929520
Filing Date: 2015-01-06
Classification: H04L,H04M

Abstract:
1. A telephony station for supporting telephony services, comprising: a physical keypad for providing Dual Tone Multifrequency (DTMF) dialing and alphabetic input to establish a switched voice call, said physical keypad having a connection to at least two Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) jacks for a single voice conversation telephone call including concurrent Dual Tone Multifrequency (DTMF) initiated switched voice communication with audio phone format and functionality of a Plain Old Telephone System (POTS) via one of the PSTN jacks and a packet-switched voice call with Internet audio format via another of the PSTN jacks, whereby a caller may make the packet-switched voice call to a callee via an Internet Service Provider while maintaining the DTMF initiated switched voice communication with the callee; a physical button, separate from the keypad, for initiating a packet-switched voice call via the Internet Service Provider; an alphanumeric keyboard for inputting a callee identifier with an alphabetic character corresponding to the packet-switched voice call; and a display coupled to the alphanumeric keyboard and configured to display the callee identifier, wherein the physical keypad, the physical button, the alphanumeric keyboard, and the display are housed in a base of the telephony station, the packet-switched voice call is initiated by a caller to an Internet address of the callee by entering the callee identifier, the callee identifier is converted to the Internet address, and after the callee identifier is converted to the Internet address, the packet-switched voice call is sent from the telephony station to the Internet address of the callee, wherein the physical button is configured to initiate the packet-switched voice call via the Internet Service Provider to the callee without interrupting a current DTMF initiated switched voice connection by the telephone station.