Patent ID: 8515340

Claim:
A method of operation of a desktop network protocol telephone set coupled to a local area network by a network interface, comprising: first receiving first network transmissions from the local area network corresponding to received audio signals; first converting the first network transmissions to a first audio signal provided to a handset of the telephone set; second receiving a second audio signal from the handset; second converting the second audio signal to second network transmissions and providing them to the network interface; third receiving an indication that a user of the telephone set is not expected to be or is not in proximity to the telephone set; selecting between a full power operating mode of the telephone set and a low-power operating mode of the telephone set in response to the indication received by the third receiving, wherein selection of the low-power operating mode disables at least a portion of the telephone set and occurs when the third receiving receives a message from a central network telephone controller via the network interface that indicates a sleep time at which the user is expected to be away from the telephone set.