Importance

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Abstract

In an environment in which simultaneous voice/data (SVD) modems are provisioned in the public switched network for separating and separately routing voice and data calls from users having SVD modems, at least one user who is already employing a first connection through an SVD modem provisioned in the public switched network, for interacting with a remote destination over one of the two channels provided by an SVD modem, may have a second connection, over the second of the two channels provided by an SVD modem, automatically established for him. The second connection may be established in response to a request by one of the users. In a particular embodiment of the invention, the data channels supplied from each SVD modem of each of said users are routed to a common data application, e.g., a game, and a direct connection is established between the voice channels of the SVD modems in response to a command from the data application in response to the request of one of the users. Such a feature is called 'voice assist' or, in the gaming context, 'talk and play'. A similar 'data assist' feature can to automatically establish a data connection between users who are interacting with a common application over their voice channels. A context-sensitive voice assist feature is also provided to automatically establish a voice connection between a user of an application and an appropriate person, given the context in which the user requests the voice connection.

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First Claim