Patent ID: 8472428

Claim:
A method for management of a communications line associated with a communications device and with a user of a communications network, the communications network comprising a voice network and a data network, the method comprising: receiving, at a server, line management information from the user over the data network, the server being in communication with the data network and the voice network, the line management information comprising: information identifying the communications line; and information requesting a modification to the identified communications line, the requested modification identifying an additional communications device to which calls received by the identified communications line are forwarded; determining, at the server, whether the requested modification would change a procedure for handling of calls directed to the identified communications line; generating, at the server, an instruction to implement the requested modification when the requested modification would change the procedure, the generating comprising: obtaining, from a database, information associated with the identified communications line; determining, based on the obtained information, a property of the communications network associated with the communications line, the communications network property being indicative of a functionality of a component of the voice network that services the identified communications line that is required to implement the modification; and generating, based on at least the communications network property, a signal to implement the requested modification at the voice network component in accordance with the functionality; and transmitting the generated instruction to the voice network component to implement the requested modification.