Patent ID: 8027332

Claim:
A communication routing system for routing calls from a remote communications network to a plurality of user-communication devices over a packet-based network, the system comprising: a user-programmable computer system database configured to store association data that can be implemented by a computer to associate, for each user, at least two independent user identifiers with at least one device identifier that identifies one of the user-communication devices, the independent user identifiers including, for each user, a location-based telephone number having an area code prefix assigned to the user's telephone user-communication device and a virtual telephone number having a different area code prefix for a geographical region designated by the user, and data associating the telephone numbers with a device identifier for a telephone user-communication device; and a call-routing switch arrangement configured to route each call received from a remote communications network to a destination user-communication device over a packet-based network in response to user identifier data in the call and association data in the user-programmable database.