Internetwork telephony with enhanced features

A method of routing of voice and data communication between terminals having respective telephone numbers via a communication system that includes telecommunication networks and a data packet network, said method comprising the steps of:

• in response to input of digits of a first telephone number at a terminal originating a telephone call, connecting the originating terminal through a first telephone switching network to a first service provider;
• communicating to said first service provider the telephone number of the originating terminal;
• accessing a storage medium of said first service provider to obtain a table, associated with the originating telephone number, having a record in which the first telephone number is correlated with a single destination telephone number, said destination telephone number being associated with an address of a second service provider, to obtain from said table said destination telephone number address;
• communicating from said first service provider to said second service provider, via said packet data network, said destination telephone number;
• originating, at said second service provider, a call to the destination telephone number via a second telephone switching network;
• and
• establishing a voice and data communication link between said originating and destination terminals via said packet data network and said first and second telephone switching networks;
• wherein said record is one of a plurality of records that correlate dialing numbers with respective destination telephone numbers in said table;
• and
• wherein said storage medium comprises a plurality of tables associated with respective originating terminals, each of the plurality of tables containing in common a set of said dialing numbers, each of the dialing numbers in said set in each table being correlated on an individual basis with respective destination telephone numbers.

A system for routing voice and data communication between terminals having respective telephone numbers via hybrid paths containing both analog voice and data packet format, said system comprising:

• a first telephone switching network linked to a first plurality of user terminals and a first Internet gateway;
• a second telephone switching network linked to a second plurality of user terminals and a second Internet gateway;
• and
• a first service provider connected to said first telephone network, said first service provider comprising a storage medium containing a plurality of tables associated with respective ones of said first plurality of user terminals, the plurality of tables containing in common a set of dialing numbers for connection to the first service provider, each of the dialing numbers in said set in each table being correlated independently with a respective destination telephone number of said second plurality of user terminals;
• wherein
• in response to input of one of said dialing numbers at one of said first plurality of user terminals, one of said tables is accessed to obtain a destination telephone number that corresponds to the dialing number input, and said destination telephone number is transmitted to said second Internet gateway for establishing a voice and data communication link between originating and destination terminals via said packet data network and said first and second telephone switching networks.