System and method for providing called party awareness information

In a phone having a display and a keypad, a method for retrieving local time information of a called device and displaying said local time information of said called device on said display of said phone, said method comprising:

• receiving identification information associated with said called device from said keypad of said phone;
• providing said identification information to a VoIP phone system, wherein said VoIP system determines whether said called device is associated with said VoIP phone system, said VoIP phone system using said identification information to determine said local time information when said called device is not associated with said VoIP phone system otherwise said VoIP phone system using offsets to determine said local time information generated by said called device when said called device is associated with said VoIP phone system, said VoIP phone system returning said local time information to said phone;
• and
• displaying said local time information on said display.

A phone system for facilitating communication among devices, said phone system comprising:

• a database for storing information about known devices;
• at least one processor;
• and
• a memory operatively coupled to said processor, said memory storing program instructions that when executed by said processor, causes said processor to:
• receive routing data from a calling device identifying a called party;
• identify at least one device associated with said called party;
• determine whether said at least one device is associated with said phone system using said information about known devices stored on said database;
• calculate a local time for said at least one device using offsets provided by said at least one device when said called party is associated with said phone system;
• and
• provide said local time of said at least one device to said calling device.