Patent ID: 7451921

Claim:
A system for providing portable telecommunication services, comprising: one or more telecommunication servers that manages a plurality of subscriber telecommunication service accounts associated with a plurality of users, the telecommunication service accounts including a particular telecommunication service account associated with a particular user who is assigned a particular telephone number to receive incoming telephone calls; a plurality of smart cards, each smart card associated with a corresponding user, each smart card including a storage medium including an application program, wherein the application program is configured to provide a set of information corresponding to an associated telecommunication service account, the plurality of smart cards including a particular smart card whose application program is configured to provide information corresponding to the particular telecommunication service account associated with the particular user; and a plurality of smart card reader devices, each being coupled to a local telephony device that is operative to receive incoming telephone calls, the plurality of smart card reader devices including a first smart card reader device coupled to a first telephony device and a second smart card reader coupled to a second telephony device; wherein as a result of the particular smart card being plugged into the first smart card reader, telephone calls directed to the particular telephone number are received at the first telephony device, and as a result of the particular smart card being plugged into the second smart card reader, telephone calls directed to the particular telephone number are received at the second telephony device; and wherein the first telephony device is a PSTN endpoint device coupled to the PSTN via a subscriber line and the second telephony device is coupled via a voice over IP (VoIP) gateway function to the Internet to provide VoIP telephony connectivity.