Importance

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Abstract

A method of and system for telecommunication are disclosed, in which a service provider establishes a point of presence with a plurality of telephone numbers in at least one first vicinity. The service provider receives telephone calls to those numbers and relays each such call over a wide-area network (WAN) to a recipient in a second vicinity to which the telephone number in question is not local. Each said telephone number is assigned to a specific recipient, and each call is directed to its recipient on the basis of the telephone number to which it was made, so that each number can be presented to potential callers as if it were a local number in the first vicinity for the recipient, even though the recipient may have no physical presence in the first vicinity. The recipient thus has a 'Virtual Telephone Number' (VTN) in the first vicinity. The caller need merely telephone the local number in his or her own vicinity, and is connected to the recipient without any further action or effort on the caller's part.

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First Claim