Patent ID: 8279850

Claim:
A voice over Internet protocol phone comprising: a phone housing; a memory in the housing; a plurality of openings in the phone housing to receive a keypad; a bay defined in the phone housing and dimensioned to receive a first user-replaceable network interface, the first user-replaceable network interface to communicatively couple the voice over Internet protocol phone to a voice over Internet protocol gateway using a first communication protocol, the voice over Internet protocol phone and the voice over Internet protocol gateway for use at a same customer premises; a second user-replaceable network interface to replace the first user-replaceable network interface, the second user-replaceable network interface to cause the phone to communicate using a second communication protocol different from the first communication protocol; a universal serial bus port to communicatively couple the voice over Internet protocol phone to a computer to facilitate installation of a driver associated with at least one of the first or the second user-replaceable network interface on the memory of the voice over Internet protocol phone, the driver to enable the at least one of the first or the second user-replaceable network interface to communicate with the gateway using a corresponding one of the first communication protocol or the second communication protocol; and a voice over Internet protocol processor located in the phone housing to download the driver associated with the second user-replaceable network interface via the universal serial bus port to the memory of the voice over Internet protocol phone after the voice over Internet protocol processor is initialized and the first user-replaceable network interface has been replaced with the second user-replaceable network interface.