System and method for providing service provider configurations for telephones using a central server in a data network telephony system

A telephone for communicating voice signals on a data network telephony system, the telephone comprising:

• a network interface to sense a network connection;
• a signaling stack operable to perform call initiation functions;
• a media engine operable to perform data communications functions, the media engine comprising a voice function operable to communicate digitized voice signals on data packets;
• a telephone configuration identifier operable to establish a connection to a telephone configuration server comprising at least one service provider configuration;
• and
• a telephone part number comprising any combination of alphanumeric characters associated with a selected one of the at least one service provider configurations in the telephone configuration server, wherein the selected one of the at least one service provider configurations includes a service provider proxy address associated with a service provider server operable to configure a data network telephone, the data network telephone being operable to provide the telephone part number to the telephone configuration server and, in response to providing the telephone part number, to receive the selected one of the at least one service provider configurations during the connection with the telephone configuration server.

A method of configuring a data network telephone to perform telephone service function in accordance with a telephone service provider, the method comprising the steps of:

• connecting to a telephone configuration server;
• sending a telephone part number associated with the data network telephone to the telephone configuration server;
• receiving a service provider configuration corresponding to the telephone part number, wherein the service provider configuration includes a service provider proxy address associated with a service provider server operable to configure the data network telephone;
• and configuring the data network telephone in accordance with the service provider configuration.