Patent 7512114 was granted and assigned to Agere Systems on March, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A communications apparatus supporting seamless integration of VoBB and POTS services can be used with or embodied in any communications appliance or voice/data gateway product that has connectivity to both services. The apparatus supports user-specified usage of one service over another on a call-by-call and/or call-category basis. For example, all long-distance outgoing calls (or those belonging to specific area codes or regions) may be specified to use the VoBB service and all local calls or just emergency “9-1-1” calls may be specified to use the POTS service. The apparatus also enables communication service features such as multiple-line (ML), three-way-calling (TWC), and conference calling (CC)) to be managed intelligently across the VoBB and POTS services.