Method and system for processing telephone calls involving two digital wireless subscriber units that avoid double vocoding

Abstract

A method and system for processing telephone calls within a digital wireless telephone system is described. During the initiation of a telephone call from a wireless subscriber unit, it is determined whether the receiving subscriber unit is also part of a digital wireless telephone system that has compatible vocoding capability. If so, vocoded data from the digital wireless telephone system is converted into tones that are introduced into a wire based telephone system for routing to the appropriate receiving digital wireless telephone system. When these tones are received by the receiving digital wireless telephone system, the vocoded data is regenerated based on the tones and then transmitted to the receiving subscriber unit. If the originating and receiving wireless subscriber units are part of the same digital wireless telephone system, the steps of conversion to tones and introduction into the wire based telephone system are omitted, and the call is routed completely within that digital wireless telephone system. In another embodiment of the invention, the step of conversion to tones is entirely omitted and the vocoded data is passed between the two digital wireless telephone systems via an all digital connection such as an ATM packet network or a wire based telephone connection where the integrity of digital information is assured.