Lucent Technologies Inc.

Charles William Coffey

David B Smith

George Paul Wilkin

Matthew Richard Smith

John Andrew Johnson

Apparatus and a method for serving telecommunications customers, using the transmission capabilities of a Packet Network. A customer having Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) that includes a Customer Premises Equipment (CPE)/Gateway for communicating with a Packet Network, is connected to a port of the Packet Network. The customer is connected to the Gateway of a Home Switch via the Packet Network, and is also connected to Gateways of one or more Guest Switches. The customer has telephone numbers in the Home Switch and each of the Guest Switches. Callers can call the customer as if that customer were directly served by the Home Switch or any of the Guest Switches. Advantageously, the customer and callers to that customer are billed only for the short, usually local, call rate from the selected Home or Guest Switch. Advantageously, the customer can make outgoing calls dynamically via any of the Guest Switches.

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Aurora, IL, United States of America

Charles William Coffey