Patent ID: 8565405

Claim:
A telephone handset of the type operable to make an outgoing connection to another handset or device and receive an incoming call from another handset or device, the telephone handset comprising: at least one connection apparatus for connecting incoming or outgoing voice calls to other handsets or devices via a plurality of different networks or other links wherein the handset is further provided with a call handling engine comprising an identification unit, a rules unit, a comparison unit and an enabling unit, wherein the identification unit is operable to identify the source of an incoming call or the destination of an outgoing call, the rules unit is operable to identify valid options for handling a requested incoming or outgoing call according to predetermined rules, the comparison unit is operable to rank the valid call handling options according to predetermined criteria and the enabling unit is operable to enable the top ranked handling option, wherein the criteria for ranking the handling options include at least one of: identified source; identified destination; cost, quality, reliability, availability, bandwidth of connection; expected length of call; time of call request; expected duration of call; and estimated power consumption; and further wherein there are a number of different ranking criteria settings stored as different operating modes.