Patent ID: 7711370

Claim:
A method comprising: transmitting a radio frequency (RF) signal from a mobile handset to a base station; determining if the mobile handset is within a zone, wherein the zone comprises a spatial area within which a communication link between a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) capable device and the mobile handset can be established; disabling the transmission of the RF signal to the base station if the mobile handset enters the zone; establishing the communications link between the mobile handset and the VoIP capable device; wherein the VoIP capable device is configured to operate as an Internet Protocol (IP) phone; registering the mobile handset to the VoIP capable device via the communications link; wherein registration of the mobile handset triggers registration of the VoIP capable device to a telephone switching device via a network and communicatively couples the mobile handset to the telephone switching device without registering the mobile handset to the telephone switching device, wherein the mobile handset is not identified by the registration of the VoIP capable device to the telephone switching device and wherein the mobile handset appears to the telephone switching device to be a wireline VoIP device; sending a call to be routed through the VoIP capable device to the telephone switching device, wherein sending the call comprises communicating the dialing information to the VoIP capable device for connecting the call; and accessing one or more vendor specific services associated with the VoIP capable device from the mobile handset via the communications link.