Patent ID: 8265062

Claim:
A method of determining when to decline a call request from a customer, wherein the call is to be routed from an originating gateway to one of a plurality of destination gateways over the Internet, comprising: obtaining call routing information that indicates destination gateways that are potentially capable of completing the call, wherein the routing information includes the address for a decline destination gateway that will cause the call to be treated in a special fashion, wherein the special fashion does not include attempting to complete the call to a destination telephony device identified in the customer's call request; and attempting to setup the call through at least one the destination gateway that is potentially capable of completing the call; sending a call setup request from the originating gateway to the decline destination gateway when the originating gateway determines that the call cannot be setup with any destination gateways potentially capable of completing the call; receiving a special code that is sent from the decline destination gateway to the originating gateway in response to the call setup request; and sending a call decline message from the originating gateway to the customer in response to receipt of the special code.