Patent ID: 7693137

Claim:
A system comprising: a signal routing agent; a gateway adapted to receive a first incoming call addressed to a first dialed number and a second incoming call addressed to a second dialed number; at least one gatekeeper in communication with the gateway and responsive to receipt of the first incoming call to control the gateway to transmit a first computer network-compatible signal corresponding to the first incoming call to the signal routing agent and responsive to receipt of the second incoming call to control the gateway to transmit a second computer network-compatible signal corresponding to the second incoming call to the signal routing agent; a data store storing data associating the first incoming call to a set of terminals selected from a plurality of terminals and associating the second incoming call to at least one of the terminals of the selected set; and the signal routing agent being responsive to receipt of the first computer network-compatible signal to access the data store to identify the selected set of terminals assigned to receive the first computer network-compatible signal and to transmit first line appearance messages that identify an origin of the first incoming call to the selected set of terminals, and being responsive to receipt of the second computer network-compatible signal to access the data store to identify the at least one of the terminals of the selected set assigned to receive the second computer network-compatible signal and to transmit a second line appearance message identifying an origin of the second incoming call to the at least one of the terminals of the selected set.