Patent ID: 8165572

Claim:
A method of routing calls: receiving at a softswitch a first call intended for a user, the first call associated with a calling party phone address, wherein the first call intended for the user is directed to a user phone address and the user phone address is other than a wireless phone address; using signaling information associated with the first call to access account information for the user; placing an outbound call from the softswitch to a wireless communications service provider associated with the user phone address, wherein the softswitch configures call signaling parameters so as to preserve the calling party phone address in the outbound call signaling information, wherein the outbound call appears to be to a ported phone address to the wireless communication service provider, and to cause, at least in part, the wireless communication service provider to route the outbound call to the user's mobile telecommunications device; causing at least in part the outbound call to be bridged with the inbound call in a mode so that the first calling party cannot hear the user; recording a message from the first calling party; and causing the user to hear the recorded message at substantially the same time the message is being recorded; causing, at least in part, one or more future calls from the user's mobile telecommunications device to be presented to called parties with the user phone address, wherein the user phone address is other than the ported phone address used by the softswitch to route the outbound call to the user's mobile telecommunication device; and receiving at the softswitch a second call intended for the user from a second calling party, the second call directed to the user phone address, wherein: the second calling party is a member of a same wireless network as the user, and optimal routing is disabled with respect to the second calling party, to thereby inhibit the second call from being routed directly to the user's mobile telecommunications device without transit through the softswitch.