Patent ID: 8547965

Claim:
A method comprising: identifying a uniform resource identifier associated with a called party, the called party being identified in a received first communication session initiation message, wherein identifying the uniform resource identifier comprises extracting a telephone number from the first communication session initiation message and querying a telephone number mapping database based on the telephone number to obtain the uniform resource identifier; identifying a domain name of the uniform resource identifier; when the domain name of the uniform resource identifier corresponds to a global identity service and does not specify a service provider network, querying a global uniform resource identifier database based on the uniform resource identifier to identify a first service provider network of the called party according to the global identity service, wherein querying the global uniform resource identifier database comprises sending a query identifying the uniform resource identifier to a global uniform resource identifier server and receiving a response from the global uniform resource identifier server identifying the service provider network; and sending a second communication session initiation message including the uniform resource identifier to the first service provider network.