Patent ID: 8903903

Claim:
A method for providing presence service using presence information from a plurality of presence information providers, the method comprising: at a network node including at least one processor: maintaining, in the network node, a presence routing database storing address information for a plurality of presence information providers, at least some of the presence information providers being associated with different network operators; receiving, from a message source, a first presence-related message that includes information identifying a user, the message source being a node associated with a first network operator; using the information identifying a user to identify, from the presence routing database, a presence information provider that is currently maintaining presence information associated with the identified user, the identified presence information provider being associated with a second network operator different from the first network operator; and relaying the first presence-related message to the identified presence information provider or sending a second presence-related message associated with the first presence-related message to the identified presence information provider.