System and method of providing a single service destination in a telecommunications network

1. A method of routing calls to a single service destination for multi-service users in a telecommunications network, each of the multi-service users having access to a plurality of telephony services including a first telephony service provided in a first service provider network, and a second, different, telephony service provided in a second, different service provider network, the method comprising:

receiving, in the first service provider network, an unanswered call directed to a first telephony party identifier associated with the first telephony service for a user;

altering, in the first service provider network, first signaling information for the received unanswered call so as to modify destination information therein, the modified destination information for the call comprising a telephony party identifier associated with the single service destination, the single service destination being located in the second service provider network;

adding, in the first service provider network, second signaling information for the received unanswered call so as to add a second telephony party identifier therein, the second signaling information for the received unanswered call comprising the second telephony party identifier, different to both the first telephony party identifier and the telephone party identifier associated with the single service destination, the second telephone party identifier being associated with the second telephony service for the user; and

routing the received unanswered call to the single service destination located in the second telephony service network, on the basis of the altered first signaling information, to provide call completion to the single service destination,

wherein the single service destination comprises a mailbox service.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving the routed unanswered call at the single service destination; and

identifying that the added information for the call comprises the telephony party identifier associated with the second telephony service for the user,

wherein the call completion to the single service destination for the user is carried out on the basis of the identification.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first telephony service is provided by a first telephony service provider and the second telephony service is provided by a second, different service provider.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the single service destination is provided to the user by the second telephony service provider.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first telephony service and the second telephony service are provided by the same telephony service provider.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the unanswered call is received at a first network entity associated with the first telephony service and the unanswered call is routed to a second network entity associated with the second telephony service, the second network entity being arranged to provide the single service destination.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first telephony service and the second telephony service comprise one or more of a wireline telephony service, a wireless telephony service, and a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone service.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the telecommunications system comprises a store containing:

a plurality of telephony party identifiers associated with the first telephony service for multi-service users;

a plurality of telephony party identifiers associated with the second telephony service for multi-service users; and

a plurality of telephony party identifiers associated with single service destinations provided by the second telephony service provider,

wherein the method further comprises accessing the store in order to retrieve the telephony party identifier associated with the single service destination and the telephony party identifier associated with the second telephony service, so as to alter the first signaling information and add the second signaling information.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the accessing of the store comprises accessing data in a database held remote from the multi-service users.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the telephony party identifiers comprise one or more of a calling party identifier, a network node identifier, a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) identifier, and a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) identifier.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the single service destination for the user is accessible by the user via the first telephony service and via the second telephony service.

12. The method of claim 3 , wherein the single service destination for the user is accessible by the user via the first telephony service and via the second telephony service.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the added second signaling information is added to a redirection information field in signaling information for the call.

14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

intercepting an access call to the single service destination via the first telephony service; and

altering third signaling information in the access call from the first telephony service so as to modify caller identification information therein, the modified caller identification information comprising caller identification information for the user associated with the second telephony service.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising altering fourth signaling information in the access call from the first telephony service so as to modify destination information therein, the modified destination information for the access call comprising a telephony party identifier associated with the single service destination.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the destination information before the modification of the access call comprises a short code associated with the single service destination and the destination information after the modification comprises a telephone dialing number for a messaging center node responsible for providing the single service destination.

17. The method of claim 14 , further comprising adding fifth signaling information to a redirection field in signaling information for the access call, the fifth signaling information comprising the second telephony party identifier.

18. A method of retrieving messages from a single mailbox provided to a multiservice user in a telecommunications network, the multi-service user having access to a plurality of telephony services including a first telephony service provided in a first service provider network and a second, different, telephony service provided in a second, different service provider network, and to a mailbox service comprising a mailbox for storing one or more messages for the user, the mailbox service being provided by the provider of the second telephony service in the second service provider network, the method comprising:

receiving, in the first service provider network, a message retrieval request message, the message retrieval request message being received from a telephony device associated with the first telephony service, the message retrieval request message comprising caller identification information identifying the user in the first telephony service;

altering, in the first service provider network, first signaling information in the message retrieval request message so as to modify caller identification information therein, the modified caller identification information comprising caller identification information identifying the user in the second telephony service; and

routing the message retrieval request message containing the altered first signaling information to a network node responsible for providing the mailbox service to the user, the network node being located in the second service provider network, to provide message retrieval from the mailbox on the basis of the modified caller information identifying the user in the second telephony service.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the first telephony service is provided by a first telephony service provider and the second telephony service is provided by a second, different service provider.

20. The method of claim 18 , wherein the first telephony service and the second telephony service are provided by the same telephony service provider.

21. The method of claim 18 , further comprising:

altering third signaling information in the message retrieval request message so as to modify destination information therein from a short code associated with the mailbox service to a telephone dialing number for the network node,

wherein the routing is carried out on the basis of the altered third signaling information.

22. An apparatus configured to perform the method of claim 1 .

23. An apparatus configured to perform the method of claim 14 .

24. An apparatus configured to perform the method of claim 18 .

25. A non-transient computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon, which, when executed cause a computerized device to perform the method of claim 1 .

26. A non-transient computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon, which, when executed cause a computerized device to perform the method of claim 14 .

27. A non-transient computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon, which, when executed cause a computerized device to perform the method of claim 18 .