Patent ID: 8089957

Claim:
A network infrastructure supporting call exchange between a first client terminal having a first client handle established with a first service provider and a second client terminal having a second client handle established with a second service provider, the network infrastructure comprising: a packet switched network communicatively coupled to both the first and second client terminals; a shared database communicatively coupled to the packet switched network; the first client terminal comprising a first network interface that has at least one first network address; the second client terminal comprising a second network interface that has at least one second network address; the first client terminal configured to associatively store the first client handle and the at least one first network address within the shared database, the first client handle comprising a first service provider identifier identifying the first service provider; the second terminal configured to associatively store the second client handle and the at least one second network address within the shared database, the second client handle comprising a second service provider identifier identifying the second service provider; the first client terminal configured to transmit the second client handle to the shared database to retrieve the at least one second network address from the database associated with the second client handle; and the first client terminal establishes a call with the second terminal using the at least one second network address.