Importance

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Abstract

An internet related telephone accessory connects directly to conventional home and business telephones and enables the establishment of long distance telephone connections through the internet, realizing substantial savings in long distance telephone tolls. The telephone accessory initiates, in response to dialing of a long distance telephone number, a process which calls that telephone number through the internet. If the receiving telephone is not connected at the time of the call to its internet service provider (ISP), the telephone accessory calls the dialed telephone conventionally, i.e. through a long distance telephone service (MCI, ATT, SPRINT, etc.) and electronically signals it (in the space of less than about a second) to connect itself to the internet. Thereafter, the accessory redials the called telephone over the internet, so that the parties could converse (or transmit fax messages and the like) over the internet at local telephone rates.

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First Claim