Patent ID: 8537814

Claim:
A system for providing telecommunication services to a customer premises, the system comprising: a network interface device located at the customer premises and coupled to a communication network, the communications network comprising an external transport medium external to the customer premises, to receive a plurality of telecommunication information sets via the communication network and to distribute at least one of the plurality of information sets to the customer premises; and a control point coupled to the network interface device via the communication network to transmit configuration information to the network interface device, wherein the network interface device uses the configuration information to configure the behavior of the network interface device in interacting with at least one telecommunication device; wherein: the network interface device comprises a processing system that serves as a termination point for the external transport medium and an isolation device configured to isolate an internal transport medium from the external transport medium, such that operational changes to the internal transport medium do not affect the external transport medium and operational changes to the external transport medium do not affect the internal transport medium; the plurality of telecommunication information sets comprises a first telecommunication information set associated with a first telecommunication service provided by a first telecommunication provider and a second telecommunication information set associated with a second telecommunication service provided by a second telecommunication provider; the control point receives first configuration information for the network interface device from the first telecommunication provider, receives second configuration information for the network interface device from the second telecommunication provider, and transmits the first and second configuration information to the network interface device; and the network interface device uses the first configuration information to configure the behavior of the network interface device in interacting with the at least one telecommunication device associated with the first telecommunication service and uses the second configuration information to configure the behavior of the network interface device in interacting with at least one telecommunication device associated with the second telecommunication service.