Importance

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Abstract

A telephony services distribution system includes a voice/data server that receives and transmits telephony data in accordance with a suitable digital communication protocol. The voice/data server is associated with a customer premise that supports a number of enhanced telephony devices, which may include wired and/or wireless telephone devices, videophone devices, facsimile devices, or the like. The customer premise may also support any number of conventional POTS telephony instruments. The voice/data server and the enhanced telephony devices communicate signaling data therebetween via a signaling technique such as the V.21 modem protocol. The signaling information conveys data associated with the status of the enhanced telephony devices, calling party and called party identification, characteristics of the incoming and outgoing calls, and/or data related to any number of operating parameters and characteristics of the system. The telephony services distribution system enables a single twisted pair to support calls associated with a plurality of telephone numbers and a plurality of enhanced telephony instruments to receive calls associated with different telephone numbers. The system is capable of regulating, monitoring, and controlling communications in response to a called party identification or a calling party identification.

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First Claim