System and method for setting presence status based on access point usage

A wireless telephone, comprising:

• a cellular telephone controller configured to interface the cellular telephone to a telephone network;
• a wireless packet network controller configured to interface the wireless telephone to one or more packet networks for voice over IP voice connection;
• and
• a wireless network access point controller configured to function as a wireless access point for interfacing a computer to said packet network via the telephone network;
• wherein a presence status of a user is set based on whether the wireless network access point controller is activated.

A telecommunications system, comprising:

• a wireless packet network;
• a cellular telephone network;
• at least one computing device including a wireless network interface card for communicating over the wireless packet network;
• a presence server on said packet network;
• and
• a wireless telephone having a voice over IP controller for voice communication over a packet network and a cellular network controller for voice communication over a cellular telephone network, the wireless telephone configured to function as a cellular wireless network interface, wherein said wireless telephone is configured to implement a wireless access point function so as to interface a computer equipped with a wireless network interface to a packet network via the cellular telephone network;
• wherein a presence status of a user is set at said presence server based on whether the wireless telephone has activated said wireless access point function.