Patent ID: 6904038

Claim:
A telecommunication system, comprising: a first telecommunication device, including: a first interface coupled to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) in a first local calling area; a second interface coupled to a packet network; a third interface coupled to a first plain old telephone system (POTS) telephony device; a router coupling the first, second, and third interfaces and operable to direct telecommunications between the first, second, and third interfaces; a gateway operable to enable telecommunications between the first POTS telephony device and the packet network; and a processor operable to: receive signaling from the first POTS telephony device indicating a desire to establish telecommunications with a second POTS telephony device coupled to the PSTN in a second local calling area; identify a second telecommunication device coupled to the packet network and coupled to the PSTN in the second local calling area; determine whether the first telecommunication device has an appropriate amount of associated credit to use the second telecommunication device to establish telecommunications between the first and second POTS telephony devices; and establish telecommunications between the first POTS telephony device and the second telecommunication device using the packet network; and the second telecommunication device, comprising: a first interface coupled to the PSTN in the second local calling area; a second interface coupled to the packet network; a router coupling the first and second interfaces and operable to direct telecommunications between the first and second interfaces; a gateway operable to enable telecommunications between the second POTS telephony device and the packet network; and a processor operable to establish, in response to communications from the first telecommunication device, telecommunications between the second POTS telephony device and the first telecommunication device using the packet network, such that the first and second POTS telephony devices may communicate without using a long distance network coupling the first and second local calling areas.