Patent ID: 8879545

Claim:
A method for handling voice over internet protocol telephone calls, the method comprising: receiving a communication session initiation message for a voice over internet protocol call from a caller at a source telephone number, the communication session initiation message including a destination telephone number and a direct voicemail feature identifier; determining that the direct voicemail feature identifier indicates that the caller requests that the call be sent directly to a voicemail mailbox associated with the destination telephone number; requesting a uniform resource identifier (URI) associated with the destination telephone number from a telephone number (ENUM) server; in response to the requesting, receiving from the ENUM server a list of URIs associated with the destination telephone number, wherein the list of URIs includes indications of service names and service types; selecting a voicemail URI from the list, wherein the voicemail URI in the list of URIs includes a service name indicating voicemail and a service type indicating voicemail; replacing a uniform resource locator of the communication session initiation message with the voicemail URI; and forwarding the call directly to the voicemail mailbox associated with the destination telephone number without ringing the destination telephone number, by: inserting the destination telephone number in a redirecting number field; and replacing content of a destination field with an identifier associated with a voicemail server containing the voicemail mailbox.