Patent ID: 8379634

Claim:
A method of routing a call over a voice and data network (VDN) to a destination device, the method comprising: receiving a call from a calling device at a telecommunications gateway (TCG); receiving authentication data via the call; determining whether a user account associated with the authentication data is authorized to route calls via the TCG to a VDN; when the user account is authorized to route calls via the TCG to the VDN, converting call data received at the TCG via the call into a format compatible with the VDN; sending a dialing signal to the calling device after determining that the user account is authorized to route calls via the TCG to the VDN; receiving a destination address associated with the destination device in response to the dialing signal, wherein the destination address is used to send the converted call data via the VDN to the destination device: and sending the converted call data via the VDN to a destination device.