Bluetooth interface between cellular and wired telephone networks

Abstract

An interconnect device for connecting a Bluetooth compliant cellular telephone to one or more wired telephones on an existing wired network. The interconnect device includes an interface to the wired network that emulates the behavior of a standard trunk line to a central office and includes a Bluetooth transceiver which communicates via short-range radio signaling with a Bluetooth transceiver in the cellular telephone. The interconnect device permits an outgoing call to be placed via the cellular telephone network from a conventional wired telephone by sending dial tone to the wired telephone when the cellular telephone is in range and not in use, accepting a called number from the wired telephone to the cellular telephone to initiate an outgoing call, and establishing a voice link between the wired telephone and the remote answering party via the Bluetooth transceivers and the cellular network. Incoming calls to the cellular phone are intercepted by the interconnect device which applies ringing signals to the connected wired telephones, any of which may be taken off-hook to answer the incoming cellular call.