Patent ID: 6987988

Claim:
A telephone docking station for coupling signals among a wireless telephone, a cordless telephone handset and a metallic telephone line, comprising: a multiple port telephone switch; a wireless telephone interface adapted to receive the wireless telephone and to couple wireless signals with a first port on said switch, said wireless telephone interface having an output state indicative of the presence of the wireless telephone; a cordless telephone base unit having a radio transceiver adapted to communicate with the cordless telephone handset and adapted to couple cordless signals with a second port on said switch; a telephone line interface adapted to interface with the metallic telephone line and to couple line signals with a third port on said switch, and a controller coupled to said output, and coupled to control said switch to connect said first port or said second port to said third port as a function of the state of said output; a cordless handset operable to communicate data signals with said cordless telephone base unit, said cordless handset having an actuator and operable to encode a control signal in said data signals in response to actuation of said actuator, and wherein said radio transceiver is coupled to receive said control signal from said cordless handset and operable to communicate said control signal to said controller, and wherein said controller controls said switch to connect either of said first port or said third port to said second port in accordance with said control signal, and wherein said cordless handset further comprises a display indicator for indicating which of said ports are connected in said switch, and wherein said controller is operable to generate a switch state signal within said data signals and cause said cordless telephone base unit to communicate said switch state signal to said cordless handset, and wherein said cordless handset is operable to drive said display in accordance with said switch state signal.