Patent ID: 7580977

Claim:
A method for conducting an instant messaging or chat session, comprising: receiving Text Terminal for the Deaf (TTD) tones over a circuit switched network from a source device at a gateway device including connecting the source device over the circuit switched network to the gateway device in automatic response to a dialing operation performed at the source device using a particular phone number selected from among a plurality of access phone numbers available for the gateway device, wherein the gateway is an Internet Protocol (IP) gateway configured to convert signaling from the circuit switched network into IP packets for transporting over an IP network; identifying if the TTD tones are associated with a particular instant messaging or chat service automatically from the particular phone number, wherein the instant messaging or chat service is located and operates on an instant messaging or chat server that operates independently and remotely from the gateway device, and wherein the gateway establishes an IP connection with the instant messaging or chat server separately from a connection established with the source device, and the instant messaging or chat server establishes another IP connection with a destination device separately from the connection established between the source device and the gateway and separately from the IP connection established between the gateway and the instant messaging or chat server; and conducting an instant messaging or chat session with the destination device through the instant messaging or chat server using text information contained in the TTD tones including automatically establishing the instant messaging or chat session with the instant messaging or chat server over the IP network connection in automatic response to the dialing operation and converting the text information in the TTD tones into Internet Protocol (IP) packets adapted to be transported over the IP network to the instant message or chat server, wherein the IP packets are further adapted to be forwarded by the instant messaging or chat server over the IP network to the destination device.