Producing routing information for voice over IP communications

A method for routing a communication in a system between a first participant device coupled to an Internet Protocol (IP) network, associated with a first participant, and a second participant device associated with a second participant, the method comprising:

• in response to initiation of the communication by the first participant device, receiving, by at least one processor of the system, a second participant identifier associated with the second participant device;
• causing at least one processor of the system to access a user profile that is specific to the first participant and stored in at least one memory, the user profile being associated with a plurality of first participant attributes;
• causing at least one processor of the system to perform a comparison of at least a portion of the second participant identifier with at least one of the plurality of first participant attributes associated with the user profile of the first participant;
• causing at least one system database to be accessed based on the comparison of at least a portion of the second participant identifier with at least one of the plurality of first participant attributes associated with the user profile of the first participant, to determine whether at least one route exists whereby the communication may be routed to the second participant device and causing at least one processor of the system to determine a communication type associated with the at least one route;
• when the at least one route is associated with a first type of communication, causing a message to be produced comprising first route information identifying an Internet Protocol (IP) address of a first communication network element associated with the first type of communication and operable to communicate with the second participant device, using at least one processor of the system, and causing the communication to be established to the second participant device using the first communication network element;
• and
• when the at least one route is associated with a second type of communication, causing a message to be produced comprising second route information identifying an Internet Protocol (IP) address of a second communication network element associated with the second type of communication and operable to communicate with the second participant device, using at least one processor of the system, and causing the communication to the second participant device to be established using the second communication network element;
• wherein the first participant device is subscribed to a communication service being operated on the system, wherein at least one of the first type of communication and the second type of communication is identified when the second participant identifier is determined from the at least one system database to be subscribed to the communication service, and wherein at least one of the first route information and the second route information is determined based on information in the at least one system database.