Patent ID: 7197121

Claim:
A distributed telecommunications system that provides a seamless telecommunications system for a plurality of geographically dispersed components, the distributed telecommunications system comprising: a signaling gateway, the signaling gateway including: a signaling interface to a telephone network; and an interface to an IP network; a media server, the media server: including a circuit-switched interface for receiving and initiating telephone services over the telephone network; including an interface to the IP network; being operable to provide communication services over the circuit-switched interface; and being able to receive command and response input over the telephone network; an application server, the application server including an interface to the IP network over which the application server is operable to: receive and process command and response input received by the media server; and serve communication services applications to the media server in response to the media server invoking a communication service and in accordance with the received command and response input; at least one central data and message store, the at least one central message and data store being operable to: receive and store responses from the application server; and provide configuration data to the application server, the configuration data influencing the provision of the communication services applications; in response to the media server receiving a command to play back voice messages for a subscriber: the media server requesting the application server to retrieve the voice messages from the central data and message store; the application server retrieving a header portion of at least a first voice message and providing the header portion to the media server; while the media server converts the header portion to VXML and plays back the header portion of the first voice message, the application server retrieving a first audio block and a second audio block of the voice message and providing the first audio block and the second audio block of the voice message to the media server; and while the media server plays back the first audio block of the first voice message, the application server retrieving a next block of the first voice message and at least a header portion of a next voice message providing the next block of the first voice message and the at least a header portion of the next voice message to the media server.