Patent ID: 7466686

Claim:
In a system, an agent telephone system coupled to an automatic call distributor and an external switch, the automatic call distributor configured to provide communication paths for an incoming telephone call from the external switch to the agent telephone system and to route the incoming telephone call over one of a plurality of communication networks connected between the automatic call distributor and the agent telephone system, the plurality of communication networks utilizing different communication protocols, the agent telephone system comprising: a microprocessor; memory operatively coupled to the microprocessor; an agent microphone and agent speaker for transmission and reception of audio information, respectively; a conversion device operatively coupled to the agent microphone and to the agent speaker, and the conversion device also operatively coupled to the microprocessor; an input switch multiplexer operatively coupled to the microprocessor, wherein the microprocessor controls selection of one of a plurality of input lines of the switch multiplexer; a plurality of network interfaces each connected to a respective one of the plurality of input lines of the switch multiplexer, each of the plurality of network interfaces also connected to one of the plurality of communication networks, so as to establish communication between a caller of the incoming telephone call from the external switch and an agent of the agent telephone system through the automatic call distributor over one of the plurality of communication networks; and wherein the agent telephone system establishes communication between the caller and the agent over a first communication network of the plurality of communication networks and then detects a failure of the first communication network, the failure causing disconnection of the incoming telephone call between the agent telephone system and the automatic call distributor resulting in a partially disconnected call, the microprocessor, in response to the disconnection, issues a control signal to the switch multiplexer to route the partially disconnected call through a second communication network of the plurality of communication networks so as to re-establish communication between the caller and the agent, the first and second communication networks utilizing different communication protocols.