Patent ID: 7420978

Claim:
A method of charging for a voice call, the voice call comprises voice signals transmitted by a call source device and received by the call source device, comprising the steps of: providing a packetized voice network of a plurality of communicatively interconnected nodes, each node capable of communicating to and from each other node of the plurality; connecting a gateway to the call source device and to the packetized voice network, wherein the gateway comprises at least one of the plurality of communicatively interconnected nodes; linking the voice call through the gateway, to the call source device and an intended recipient, throughout duration of the voice call; converting, at the gateway, the voice signals transmitted by the call source device for the voice call to a packetized digital data representative of the voice signal, if not received at the gateway as the packetized digital data; determining, via the gateway, a number characteristic of the packetized digital data representative of the voice signals transmitted by the call source device to the gateway; obtaining the number from the gateway; and preparing a bill for the voice call based on the number from the step of obtaining.