Patent ID: 8325892

Claim:
A voice over Internet protocol telephone, comprising: a housing that supports: a telephone keypad; a telephone handset for display of audio based on voice over Internet protocol traffic; and a display screen for display of dialing, call control, and call notification functions of said voice over Internet protocol telephone; said housing containing: a wide area network port that is configured for coupling to a service provider network unit via a first network cable; a local area network port that is configured for coupling to a second device via a second network cable; a switch that is coupled to said local area network port, said wide area network port and an internal port of said voice over Internet protocol telephone, wherein said switch is configured to route voice over Internet protocol traffic that originates at said internal port to said wide area network port for delivery to said service provider network, said switch being further configured to support a gateway function in forwarding network traffic received from said service provider network unit at said wide area network via said first network cable to said local area network port for delivery to said second device via said second network cable; and an authentication module that authenticates said voice over Internet protocol telephone with said service provider for registration of said voice over Internet protocol telephone to provide said gateway function, wherein said enabling of said gateway function is conditioned on said authentication.