Patent ID: 8140061

Claim:
A system comprising: a registration station in communication with a cellular base station, the registration station further comprising: a base station transceiver operable to communicate with the base station using a first telecommunications standard; a handset transceiver operable to communicate with handsets in communication range of the registration station; and a controller operable to register automatically handsets in communication range of the registration station using a different second wireless telecommunications standard, wherein, through registration, the controller receives a unique hardware identification from each registered handset and wherein: the controller uses a selected unique hardware identification to determine a set of user preferences for the respective registered handset, the user preferences comprising forwarding an incoming call to a different telephone number if unanswered, forwarding an incoming call to an answering machine if unanswered, and forwarding an incoming call to an answering machine when received between certain hours; and the controller forms a pre-registered group when there are multiple registered handsets having different telephone numbers within range of the registration station, whereby an incoming call to a given telephone number is directed to all of the handsets in the pre-registered group.