Patent ID: 8830987

Claim:
An apparatus for Internet Protocol (IP)-based call answering point selection and routing comprising: a geographic location database for collection and storing: geographic location information associated with a plurality of IP addresses; and geographic location information associated with a plurality of Instant Messaging identity tags identifying one or more geographic locations associated with communications made using the Instant Messaging identity tags; a rules repository for storing and retrieving of rules including rules for: identifying call clusters and prioritizing handling of calls responsive to the identified call clusters; a kernel for: receiving a call origination request for a call from a calling device; determining an IP address for the calling device; determining a geographic calling location for the calling device by looking-up the IP address in the geographic location database; determining an geographic identity location by looking-up an Instant Messaging identity tag of the plurality of Instant Messaging identity tags in the geographic location database, the Instant Messaging identity tag associated with a user of the calling device and used to uniquely identify the user in a communication service; verifying the geographic calling location using the geographic identity location; designating an answering point from a plurality of answering points to which the call is to be routed responsive to the verified geographic calling location; and connecting the call to the designated answering point.