Patent ID: 7773579

Claim:
A communication system comprising: a plurality of telephones adapted to provide voice communications, wherein the plurality of telephones include at least a network telephone that is configured to communicate over an Internet-Protocol based network and a conventional telephone that is configured to communicate over a public switched telephone network; and a router adapted to provide direct coupling and wireless coupling to the plurality of telephones and to select at least one of the direct coupling and the wireless coupling to communicate with the plurality of telephones, wherein the router selectively provides voice communications from the network telephone and voice communications from the conventional telephone over an Internet-Protocol based network connection or a public switched telephone network connection; wherein the router selectively provides the voice communications from the network telephone over the Internet-Protocol based network connection or the public switched telephone network connection depending upon availability and a cost associated with providing the voice communications from the network telephone over the public switched telephone network connection, and wherein the router selectively provides the voice communications from the conventional telephone over the Internet-Protocol based network connection or the public switched telephone network connection depending upon availability and a cost associated with providing the voice communications from the conventional telephone over the public switched telephone network connection.