Converged cordless and cellular phone system

A method for integrating cordless and cellular phones, comprising:

• associating one or more cell phone modules with corresponding one or more cordless phones, each of the one or more cell phone modules including a contact list stored within its memory;
• receiving an incoming phone call, the incoming call being provided with a calling line identification (CLI);
• searching the one or more contact lists of the one or more cell phone modules, for the presence of the CLI;
• and
• routing the incoming call to the cordless phones associated with those cell phone modules that have the CLI in their contact lists.

A method for integrating cordless and cellular phones, comprising:

• associating each of a plurality of cell phone modules with a corresponding one of a plurality of cordless phones, each of the plurality of cell phone modules having an identifier;
• receiving a forwarded incoming phone call from a caller;
• automatically prompting the caller to enter an identifier;
• and
• routing the forwarded incoming call to the cordless phone associated with the cell phone module that is identified by the identifier entered by the caller.

A method for integrating cordless and cellular phones, comprising:

• associating each of a plurality of cell phone modules with a corresponding one of a plurality of cordless phones, each of the plurality of cell phone modules having an identification;
• receiving a forwarded incoming phone call, the incoming call being provided with a forwarding party's identification;
• and
• routing the forwarded incoming call to the cordless phone associated with the cell phone module that is identified by the forwarding party's identification.

A cell phone module, comprising:

• a modem for transmitting and receiving voice and data communications that are served by a cellular network operator;
• a connector for making electrical connection with a jacket having cordless phone functionality, when the cell phone module is attached to the jacket;
• and
• a controller (i) for executing programmed instructions for operating said modem, (ii) for transmitting data to and receiving data from said connector, (iii) for automatically sending a notification to the cellular operator to activate call forwarding, thereby forwarding incoming phone calls intended for the cell phone module, to the jacket, when the cell phone module is attached to the jacket, and (iv) for automatically sending a notification to the cellular operator to cancel the call forwarding, when the cell phone module is subsequently detached from the jacket.

A method for automated call forwarding, comprising:

• connecting a cell phone module with a phone system;
• automatically identifying a fixed line telephone number of the phone system;
• and
• automatically initiating call forwarding via a cellular network operator that serves the cell phone module, for calls to the cell phone module to be forwarded to the phone system, based on the identified fixed line telephone number.