Abstract: An apparatus and method for effecting sophisticated telephony services using hybrid POTS and VoIP transport without resorting to central servers or PBXs is provided. Key to the system is the use of on-phone processing capabilities comprising several A-D/D-A, memory and addressing, audio-mixing, program memory and programmable computing circuits or components. The system performs required IP and VoIP protocol stacks (UDP, RTP, and SIP for example) and POTS functionality. Optionally, fail-over from set-power may be provided using POTS line voltages. The phones of this invention self-configure dependent upon the network environment to which they are attached, and direct call and other functionality digitally under programmed computing control, thus being highly configurable; redundancy between networked phone devices adds robustness.

Abstract: A device and associated methods, that enhances analog telephony communications for an end-user by providing telephony capabilities that are typically too complex, cumbersome or costly for an individual end-user. The device provides a combination of traditional telephone capabilities with VOIP capabilities. Methods provide for the simplified use of the device from a conventional analog telephone.