Internet telephone system with hunting diversion

A communication channel management system for coupling to a PSTN central office switch by a plurality of PSTN communication lines, coupling to the Internet by a packet switched communication line, and coupling to a private telephone network by a plurality of user communication lines, the communication channel management system comprising:

• a PSTN interface coupling to the plurality of PSTN communication lines and generating PSTN channel signaling and PSTN channel media communications;
• a VoIP interface coupled to the packet switched communication line for generating VoiP channel signaling and VoIP media communications;
• a private telephone interface coupling to the plurality of user communication lines and generating private telephone channel signaling and private telephone channel media communications;
• a management module for:
• routing each outbound call from the private telephone interface to one of the PSTN interface or the VoIP interface;
• routing each inbound call detected by the PSTN interface to the private telephone interface;
• detecting a status of the user communication line to determine whether all of a plurality of user communication channels associated with a hunting group are in use;
• providing a hunting diversion message to the PSTN central office in response to determining that all user channels associated with the hunting group are in use;
• determining that at least one user channel associated with the hunting group is available for an inbound call;
• and
• providing a hunting enable message to the PSTN central office in response to determining that at least one user channel associated with the hunting group is available for an inbound call.