Patent ID: 8331358

Claim:
A method for dialing a first phone number within a telephone network based on a first packet-based call made to a personal identifier, the method comprising: receiving the first packet-based call made to the personal identifier, the first packet-based call including at least one data packet having a digital payload and a header that includes the personal identifier; forwarding the received first packet-based call from the personal identifier and through an Internet network to a first proxy identifier within a plurality of proxy identifiers that are visible to the Internet network, wherein the plurality of proxy identifiers are associated with and direct packet-based calls to a gateway device that can communicate with the telephone network; analyzing, at the gateway device, the at least one data packet of the forwarded first packet-based call to obtain the personal identifier based on the header; finding the first phone number corresponding to the obtained personal identifier using a lookup table accessible to the gateway device; dialing the first phone number using the gateway device; and transferring the data packet to the first phone number.