Patent ID: 8644480

Claim:
A method of providing services to a plurality of subscribers in a telecommunications network, the subscribers each having subscriber equipment, a main dialing number and a local exchange with which each of the main dialing numbers is associated, the services being of different types including a first service type and a second service type, each of the services of the first service type being supported by and having one or more subscriber configurability features on the local exchange and each of the services of the second service type not being supported by the local exchange, comprising: setting a call forwarding function at the local exchange for incoming calls directed to a main dialing number for a first subscriber, the call forwarding function, when set, forwarding the calls to a service platform separate from the local exchange; triggering a first service of the second service type at the service platform for at least some incoming calls forwarded to the service platform by the call forwarding function; forwarding at least some incoming calls from the service platform using an alternate dialing number for the first subscriber back to the local exchange; directing incoming calls using the alternate dialing number for the first subscriber from the local exchange to the subscriber equipment for the first subscriber; and reconfiguring the local exchange for the first subscriber, the reconfiguring disabling a subscriber-configurability feature on the local exchange for a first service of the first service type, for the main dialing number for the first subscriber, wherein the reconfiguring is carried out in response to detecting that a particular service or service setting is capable of causing interoperability problems between the local exchange and the service platform.