Patent ID: 7848495

Claim:
A voice communication apparatus interposed between a telephone set and a public switched telephone network (PSTN) or a broadband network which can provide a frequency bandwidth broader than a frequency bandwidth of the public switched telephone network, comprising: PSTN communication circuitry for transferring a voice signal between the telephone set and the public switched telephone network; broadband communication circuitry for transferring a voice signal between the telephone set and the broadband network; a communication switching unit for connecting the telephone set via said PSTN communication circuitry to the public switched telephone network when a voice signal is input from the public switched telephone network, and for connecting the telephone set via said broadband communication circuitry to the broadband network when a voice signal is input from the broadband network; and a codec decision unit for deciding an encoding scheme available from an encoded voice signal input from the broadband network, said broadband communication circuitry including: a digital-to-analog (D/A) converter having a variable sampling frequency set to a sampling frequency defined in the encoding scheme decided by said codec decision unit and D/A-converting the encoded voice signal; and an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter having a variable sampling frequency set to a sampling frequency defined in the encoding scheme decided by said codec decision unit and A/D-converting a voice signal transmitted from the telephone set.