Producing routing messages for voice over ip communications

A computer readable medium encoded with codes for directing a processor to execute a method of operating a call routing controller to facilitate communication between callers and callees in a system comprising a plurality of nodes with which callers and callees are associated, the method comprising:

• in response to initiation of a call by a calling subscriber, receiving a caller identifier and a callee identifier;
• using call classification criteria associated with the caller identifier to classify the call as a public network call or a private network call;
• producing a routing message identifying an address, on the private network, associated with the callee when the call is classified as a private network call;
• and
• producing a routing message identifying a gateway to the public network when the call is classified as a public network call.

A call routing apparatus for facilitating communications between callers and callees in a system comprising a plurality of nodes with which callers and callees are associated, the apparatus comprising:

• receiving means for receiving a caller identifier and a callee identifier, in response to initiation of a call by a calling subscriber;
• classifying means for classifying the call as a private network cal or a public network call according to call classification criteria associated with the caller identifier;
• means for producing a routing message identifying an address, on the private network, associated with the callee when the call is classified as a private network call;
• and
• means for producing a routing message identifying a gateway to the public network if the call is classified as a public network call.