Patent ID: 6876658

Claim:
In a telecommunication system, a process for addressing data comprising the steps of: a. providing a plurality of devices connected to the system, a first device having an address comprising a geographic portion and a non-geographic portion, said geographic portion comprising at least one geographic identifier to indicate the location of the first device within a predetermined geographic region, said non-geographic portion comprising a customer identifier, wherein said address of said first device comprises a scoped code; and a second device having the ability to construct a message to be transported in the telecommunications system; b. providing a plurality of switches having the ability to examine the message and to direct the message to other places in the telecommunications system; c. providing at least one database accessible by at least one of said switches, said database containing forwarding information corresponding to said address; d. in said second device, constructing the message, said message including addressing information corresponding to said address of said first device; e. transporting said message to a first switch for forwarding to a device corresponding to the addressing information; f. accessing the database to determine forwarding information corresponding to the addressing information; and g. forwarding the message to a device corresponding to said forwarding information.