Method and gateway device for converting a feature control signaling when changing between different communications networks

A gateway device to convert service feature control signaling information at a point of transition between first and second communication networks using different signaling protocols, comprising:

• first and second protocol-specific access modules corresponding to the first and second communication networks, respectively, extracting and inserting first and second service feature control information out of and into protocol-specific service feature control messages of the corresponding first and second communication networks;
• a service feature-specific conversion module converting one of the first and second service feature control information extracted from one of the corresponding first or second communication network into the other of the first and second service feature control information specific to the other of the first and second communication network;
• and
• a service feature-neutral coordination module assigning an extracted item from the one of the first and second service feature control information to the service feature-specific conversion module, and transmitting the item of the one of the first and second service feature control information between the service feature-specific conversion module and the corresponding first and second protocol-specific access modules.