Patent ID: 7813334

Claim:
A communication system, comprising: network access equipment that includes a first type of wireless air interface which supports circuit-switched communications with at least some of a plurality of wireless handheld devices, and a second type of wireless air interface that supports packet-switched communications with the at least some of the wireless handheld devices, wherein the at least some of the wireless handheld devices each include a first wireless air interface to support wireless circuit-switched communications and a second wireless air interface to support wireless packet-switched communications; a database server coupled at least partially via an internet protocol (IP) packet-switched network to the network access equipment and that provides dynamic information indicative of IP addresses available for use in communicating with respective ones of the wireless handheld devices; and a call setup protocol operative to set up a call from a particular wireless handheld device of the at least some of the wireless handheld devices to a telephony device associated with a callee, wherein: the particular wireless handheld device transmits via the network access equipment, to the database server a set of dialing digits corresponding to a telephone number where the callee can be reached via a public switched telephone network (PSTN); in response to receiving the particular set of dialing digits, the database server sends back to the particular wireless handheld device, at least partially via the IP packet-switched network and via the network access equipment, a first destination IP address where the telephony device associated with the callee can be presently reached at least partially via the IP packet-switched network; and the particular wireless handheld device causes to be established a first IP connection comprising a voice over internet (VoIP) communication connection, to complete at least a portion of the call with the telephony device associated with the callee, using the first destination IP address, wherein a stream of voice data packets associated with the VoIP communication connection is wirelessly carried between the particular wireless handheld device, and the network access equipment, wherein the particular wireless handheld device is configured to wirelessly support both circuit-switched telephone calls and packet-switched VoIP telephony calls using one or more wireless connections.