Patent ID: 7239689

Claim:
Apparatus for integrating phone communications and IT data transmissions through a local area network (LAN) ( 10 ) and for selecting, at the moment of connecting one fixed telephone of said local area network to the public phone network ( 1 ), the lowest-prices telecommunication carrier and connection mode, said apparatus comprising: at least one electronic equipment ( 11 ), and related software, which, associated with the central processing unit of said LAN, provides managing the transmission, through the LAN, of both data packets exchanged among the various IT systems of said LAN and data packets referring to phone communications exchanged among the LAN users and among said users and the external telephone network users, and provides, furthermore, at the moment of a call starting from a LAN user, automatically selecting the most inexpensive carrier of the requested telecommunication services, said selection being done according to statistic parameters concerning use of telecommunication services by each single telephone connected to peripheral devices of said LAN and cost parameters of said services; and one or more peripheral devices ( 33 ) that provide converting said data packets referring to phone communications into phone signals and sending said phone signals to telephones, faxes, and other phone sets ( 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ) connected to said peripheral devices and also provide, vice-versa, converting phone signals coming from said telephones, faxes or phone receivers into data packets compatible with the transmitting protocol of said LAN ( 10 ) and sending said data-packets toward said central electronic equipment ( 11 ).