Abstract:
A wireless Internet telephone that enables placement of long-distance telephone calls via an Internet connection, thereby avoiding long-distance telephone charges associated with proprietary long-distance networks. A wireless Internet telephone according to the present teachings includes a wireless communication subsystem that enables the wireless Internet telephone to access an Internet telephony provider using a set of Internet telephony parameters.

Description:
BACKGROUND  
       [0001]     One type of prior wireless telephone communicates wirelessly with a base station located in a home or business. A wireless telephone that communicates with a base station located in a home or business may be referred to as a wireless handset. The base station for the wireless handset may connect to a telephone landline or private exchange located in the home or business.  
         [0002]     Another type of prior wireless telephone communicates wirelessly via an arrangement of base stations that are located outside of a home or business. For example, a cell phone may communicate wirelessly via an arrangement of cellular base stations.  
         [0003]     Prior wireless telephones may employ a proprietary telephone network for placing long-distance telephone calls. For example, a wireless handset may place long-distance telephone calls via a base station that connects to a landline of a telephone network in which central offices of a telephone company provide the appropriate long-distance connections. Similarly, a cell phone may place long-distance telephone calls via a long-distance telephone network of a cellular service provider.  
         [0004]     A user of a wireless telephone that communicates via a proprietary long-distance telephone network may be subjected to a variety of charges. For example, a telephone company may impose per-minute long distance charges on a user of a wireless handset that connects to a proprietary network of a telephone company. Similarly, a cellular service provider may impose per-minute long distance charges on a user of a cell phone.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0005]     A wireless Internet telephone is disclosed that enables placement of long-distance telephone calls via an Internet connection, thereby avoiding long-distance telephone charges associated with proprietary long-distance networks. A wireless Internet telephone according to the present teachings includes a wireless communication subsystem that enables the wireless Internet telephone to access an Internet telephony provider using a set of Internet telephony parameters.  
         [0006]     Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the detailed description that follows.  
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0007]     The present invention is described with respect to particular exemplary embodiments thereof and reference is accordingly made to the drawings in which:  
         [0008]      FIG. 1  shows a wireless Internet telephone according to the present teachings;  
         [0009]      FIG. 2  illustrates communication between a pair of wireless Internet telephones according to the present teachings;  
         [0010]      FIG. 3  shows embodiments of a wireless Internet telephone and an Internet gateway system;  
         [0011]      FIG. 4  shows other embodiments of a wireless Internet telephone and an Internet gateway system;  
         [0012]      FIG. 5  shows additional embodiments of a wireless Internet telephone and an Internet gateway system according to the present teachings.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0013]      FIG. 1  shows a wireless Internet telephone  10  according to the present teachings. The wireless Internet telephone  10  includes a memory that stores a set of Internet telephony parameters  200  and further includes a wireless communication subsystem  210  that enables the wireless telephone  10  to access an Internet telephony provider  16  via an Internet gateway system  40  using the Internet telephony parameters  200 . The wireless Internet telephone  10  communicates via a wireless communication link  20  to the Internet gateway system  40 .  
         [0014]     The Internet telephony parameters  200  include a web address for the Internet telephony provider  16 . The Internet telephony parameters  200  may also include a set of login parameters, e.g. login name and password, to an account with the Internet telephony provider  16  that is associated with a user of the wireless Internet telephone  10 . The Internet telephony parameters  200  may also include a telephone access number, e.g. a dialup number, that the wireless Internet telephone  10  uses to communicate with the Internet gateway system  40 .  
         [0015]      FIG. 2  illustrates communication between the wireless Internet telephone  10  and a wireless Internet telephone  12 . The Internet gateway system  40  communicates with the Internet telephony provider  16  via an Internet connection  100 . The wireless Internet telephone  12  communicates via a wireless communication link  22  to an Internet gateway system  42  that in turn communicates with the Internet telephony provider  16  via the Internet connection  100 .  
         [0016]     The wireless Internet telephone  10  includes circuitry for generating a data packet  30  that contains digital audio samples of speech produced by a user of the wireless Internet telephone  10 . The wireless Internet telephone  10  transmits the data packet  30  to the Internet gateway system  40  via the wireless communication link  20  and the Internet gateway system  40  sends the data packet  30  to the Internet telephony provider  16  via the Internet connection  100  using Internet protocols. Similarly, the wireless Internet telephone  12  transmits a data packet  32  that contains digital audio samples of speech produced by a user of the wireless Internet telephone  12  to the Internet gateway system  42  via the wireless communication link  22  and the Internet gateway system  42  sends the data packet  32  to the Internet telephony provider  16  via the Internet connection  100  using Internet protocols.  
         [0017]     The Internet telephony provider  16  relays the data packet  30  to the Internet gateway system  42  via the Internet connection  100  using Internet protocols. The Internet gateway system  42  passes the data packet  30  to the wireless Internet telephone  12  via the wireless communication link  22 . Similarly, the Internet telephony provider  16  relays the data packet  32  to the Internet gateway system  40  via the Internet connection  100  using Internet protocols and the Internet gateway system  40  passes the data packet  32  to the wireless Internet telephone  10  via the wireless communication link  20 .  
         [0018]     The wireless Internet telephone  10  includes circuitry for rendering the audio data contained in the data packet  32  to the user of the wireless Internet telephone  10 . Similarly, the wireless Internet telephone  12  includes circuitry for rendering the audio data contained in the data packet  30  to the user of the wireless Internet telephone  12 .  
         [0019]      FIG. 3  shows embodiments of the wireless Internet telephone  10  and the Internet gateway system  40 . The wireless Internet telephone  10  in this example includes the wireless communication subsystem  210 , a persistent memory  56 , a microphone  58 , a speaker  60 , and an audio processing circuit  62 . The Internet gateway system  40  is embodied as a computer system  64  having a wireless communication subsystem  52  and a communication subsystem  54 .  
         [0020]     The wireless communication subsystems  52  and  210  provide the wireless communication link  20 . The wireless communication link  20  may be a standard wireless link for a local area network, e.g. 802.11. The wireless communication subsystem  210  may be embodied in a standardized form for a standardized card slot in the wireless Internet telephone  10  or may be built in to the wireless Internet telephone  10 . The wireless communication subsystem  52  may be embodied in a standardized form for a standardized card slot in the computer system  64  or may be built in to the computer system  64 .  
         [0021]     The audio processing circuit  62  digitizes audio signals obtained via the microphone  58 . The audio processing circuit  62  provides the digitized audio samples to the wireless communication subsystem  210 . The wireless communication subsystem  210  constructs the data packet  30  using the digitized audio samples and transmits the data packet  30  via the wireless communication link  20 . Conversely, the wireless communication subsystem  210  receives the data packet  32  via the wireless communication link  20  and extracts its digitized audio samples. The wireless communication subsystem  210  provides the incoming digitized audio samples to the audio processing circuit  62 . The audio processing circuit  62  renders the incoming digitized audio samples using the speaker  60 .  
         [0022]     The communication subsystem  54  of the computer system  64  provides access to the Internet connection  100 , e.g. dialup or a broadband connection. The computer system  64  may be a portable computer system, e.g. laptop, handheld, in which the communication subsystem  54  supports a wireless Internet connection via a wireless Internet service provider.  
         [0023]     The computer system  64  executes a telephony client  66  for the Internet telephony provider  16 . The telephony client  66  opens/closes channels to the Internet telephony provider  16  as the user of the wireless Internet telephone  10  places and completes calls. The telephony client  66  may maintain a mapping between telephone numbers dialed by the user of the wireless Internet telephone  10  and identifiers associated with clients of the Internet telephony provider  16 .  
         [0024]     The user of the wireless Internet telephone  10  initiates a telephone call by dialing a number on a keypad of the wireless Internet telephone  10 . In response, the wireless Internet telephone  10  transmits the dialed telephone number along with the Internet telephony parameters  200  contained in the persistent memory  56  to the computer system  64  via the wireless communication link  20 . The telephony client  66  uses the Internet telephony parameters  200 , e.g. web address for the Internet telephony provider  16  and login parameters for an account with the Internet telephony provider  16 , to open a channel to the Internet telephony provider  16 . The telephony client  66  relays telephony data packets, e.g. the data packets  30 - 32  between the Internet telephony provider  16  and the wireless Internet telephone  10  during an Internet telephone call.  
         [0025]      FIG. 4  shows other embodiments of the wireless Internet telephone  10  and the Internet gateway system  40 . The wireless Internet telephone  10  in this example is a cell phone that includes a persistent memory  74 , a microphone  80 , a speaker  82 , and an audio processing circuit  84 . The wireless communication subsystem  210  is embodied as a cellular telephony circuit  76  that provides the wireless communication link  20  via a cellular service provider  70 . The Internet gateway system  40  in this example is embodied as an internet service provider  72  that provides the Internet connection  100 .  
         [0026]     The wireless Internet telephone  10  embodied as a cell phone includes a processor that executes a telephony client  78  for the Internet telephony provider  16 . The telephony client  78  opens/closes channels to the Internet telephony provider  16  as the user of the wireless Internet telephone  10  places and completes calls. The telephony client  78  may maintain a mapping between telephone numbers dialed by a user and identifiers associated with clients of the Internet telephony provider  16 .  
         [0027]     The user initiates a telephone call by dialing a number on a keypad of the cell phone. In response, the telephony client  78  initiates a dialup connection to the internet service provider  72 . A telephone number for the dialup connection may be stored in the persistent memory  74 . The telephony client  78  uses the Internet telephony parameters  200  contained in the persistent memory  74 , e.g. web address for the Internet telephony provider  16  and login parameters for an account with the Internet telephony provider  16  to open a channel to the Internet telephony provider  16 .  
         [0028]     The audio processing circuit  84  digitizes audio signals obtained via the microphone  80  and provides the digitized audio samples to the telephony client  78 . The telephony client  78  constructs the data packet  30  using the digitized audio samples and provides the data packet  30  to the cellular telephony circuit  76  for transmission to the cellular service provider  70 .  
         [0029]     The cellular telephony circuit  76  receives the data packet  32  from the cellular service provider  70  and provides the data packet  32  to the telephony client  78 . The telephony client  78  extracts the audio samples from the data packet  32  and provides the audio samples to the audio processing circuit  84  which renders the incoming digitized audio samples using the speaker  80 .  
         [0030]      FIG. 5  shows additional embodiments of the wireless Internet telephone  10  and the Internet gateway system  40 . The wireless Internet telephone  10  in this example includes the wireless communication subsystem  210 , a microphone  158 , a speaker  160 , and a digitizer  162 . The Internet gateway system  40  is embodied as a computer system  164  having a wireless communication subsystem  152  and a communication subsystem  154 . The wireless communication subsystems  152  and  210  provide the wireless communication link  20 .  
         [0031]     The computer system  164  in this embodiment includes a persistent memory  156  that holds the Internet telephony parameters  200 . The computer system  164  includes an audio processing circuit  156  that generates the data packet  30  and that extracts audio data from the data packet  32 .  
         [0032]     The digitizer  162  digitizes audio signals from the microphone  158 . The digitizer  162  provides the digitized audio samples to the wireless communication subsystem  210  and the wireless communication subsystem  210  transmits the digitized audio samples via the wireless communication link  20 . Conversely, the wireless communication subsystem  210  receives digitized audio samples via the wireless communication link  20  and provides the incoming digitized audio samples to the digitizer  162  which renders the incoming digitized audio samples using the speaker  60 .  
         [0033]     The communication subsystem  154  of the computer system  164  provides access to the Internet connection  100 . The computer system  164  executes a telephony client  166  for the Internet telephony provider  16 . The telephony client  166  opens/closes channels to the Internet telephony provider  16  as the user of the wireless Internet telephone  10  places and completes calls. The telephony client  166  may maintain a mapping between telephone numbers dialed by the user of the wireless Internet telephone  10  and identifiers associated with clients of the Internet telephony provider  16 .  
         [0034]     The user of the wireless Internet telephone  10  initiates a telephone call by dialing a number on a keypad of the wireless Internet telephone  10 . In response, the wireless Internet telephone  10  transmits the dialed telephone number to the computer system  164  via the wireless communication link  20 . The telephony client  166  uses the Internet telephony parameters  200  from the persistent memory  156  to open a channel to the Internet telephony provider  16 . The telephony client  166  relays telephony data packets, e.g. the data packets  30 - 32  between the Internet telephony provider  16  and the audio processing circuit  156  during an Internet telephone call and the audio processing circuit  156  relays the digitized audio data for the data packets via the wireless communication link  20 .  
         [0035]     The foregoing detailed description of the present invention is provided for the purposes of illustration and is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise embodiment disclosed. Accordingly, the scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims.