Patent ID: 7764955

Claim:
In a communication system in which a device operates under an assigned directory number and has a device type, a method comprising: receiving into a network node a request to set up a call from the device to a dialed number; determining a unique serial number of the device as an indication of the device type, wherein the serial number uniquely identifies the device compared with all other devices; and based at least in part on the serial number, selecting a destination to which the call should be routed in order to establish a connection to the dialed number, wherein selecting the destination to which the call should be routed comprises at least one of (i) selecting a customer service center to which the call should be routed, in which case the destination comprises the customer service center, (ii) selecting a customer service department to which the call should be routed, in which case the destination comprises the customer service department, (iii) selecting an operator terminal to which the call should be routed, in which case the destination comprises the operator terminal, and (iv) selecting a set of operator terminals to which the call should be routed, in which case the destination comprises the set of operator terminals, wherein selecting the destination based at least in part on the serial number comprises (i) performing a data lookup to determine based on the serial number at least one characteristic of the device selected from the group consisting of manufacturer of the device, and model of the device, and (ii) selecting the destination based at least in part on the at least one determined characteristic of the device.