Patent ID: 7206401

Claim:
A method for providing a remote PBX service by a customer's phone service provider, comprising the steps of: assigning more than one telephone number to one customer's telephone communication link, the one customer's telephone communication link in communication with at least one customer terminal unit; receiving a connect signal by the customer's phone service provider from a calling party terminal unit, the connect signal including one of the telephone numbers assigned to the one customer's telephone communication link; generating a called telephone code indicative of the one of the telephone numbers included in the connect signal; and sending the called telephone code to the customer terminal unit via the customer's telephone communication link whereby a user of the customer's telephone communication link is capable of knowing which of the more than one telephone numbers assigned to the one customer's telephone communication link was called prior to answering the customer terminal unit, the customer's phone service provider providing the remote PBX service for the customer without the necessity of a local PBX.