System and method for providing carrier-independent VoIP communication

1. A method comprising:

receiving, via a server, a first existing carrier-issued telephone number associated with a callee to be called by a caller associated with a second existing carrier-issued telephone number;

determining, via the server, a status of a match between the first existing carrier-issued telephone number and a registered telephone number stored in a carrier-independent database;

based on the status indicating a match between the first existing carrier-issued telephone number and the registered telephone number in the carrier-independent database, determining, via the server, an electronic address associated with the registered telephone number in the carrier-independent database and causing, via the server, a call to be placed from the caller to the callee based on the electronic address via a carrier-independent peer-to-peer connection, wherein the call is associated with the first existing carrier-issued telephone number and the second existing carrier-issued telephone number; and

based on the first existing carrier-issued telephone number not matching the registered telephone number in the carrier-independent database as informed via the status, causing, via the server, the call to be placed via a standard route.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising testing the carrier-independent peer-to-peer connection to determine if a user specification is acceptable.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein if the user specification is not acceptable, automatically falling back to placing the call via the standard route.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the user specification comprises quality standards for the carrier-independent peer-to-peer connection.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the user specification comprises availability of the carrier-independent service.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein the user specification comprises a user-specific set of specifications.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the user-specific set of specifications including at least one of jitter, latency, sine-wave audio echo analysis, and live MOS scoring.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the standard route comprises a PSTN connection.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the standard route comprises a third-party VoIP connection.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: registering, via the processor, the first existing carrier-issued telephone number for carrier-independent VoIP calling service.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: performing, via the processor, a verification process on the first existing carrier-issued telephone number.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the verification process comprises requesting, via the processor, a DTMF sequence from a device associated with the first existing carrier-issued telephone number.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the verification process comprises a re-verification of the registered telephone number.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining a dynamic address for the registered telephone number.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the status is determined using the first existing carrier-issued telephone number as a lookup key in the carrier-independent database.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the carrier-independent database is updateable off a data source remote to the server, wherein the data source hosts a data source database, wherein the carrier-independent database is updateable off the data source such that the carrier-independent database contains a copy of the data source database.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the server is an iPBX server.

18. A system comprising:

a server;

a carrier-independent database accessible via the server, wherein the carrier-independent database stores a registered telephone number and an electronic address associated with the registered telephone number,

wherein the server determines a status of a match between a first existing carrier-issued telephone number associated with a callee and the registered telephone number stored in the carrier-independent database, and provides the electronic address if the status indicates a match between the first existing carrier-issued telephone number and the registered telephone number in the carrier-independent database, and based on the status indicating a match between the first existing carrier-issued telephone number and the registered telephone number in the carrier-independent database, the server causes a call to be placed from a caller to the callee based on the electronic address via a carrier-independent peer-to-peer connection such that the call is associated with the first existing carrier-issued telephone number and a second existing carrier-issued telephone number associated with the caller, and based on the status indicating no match between the first existing carrier-issued telephone number and the registered telephone number in the carrier-independent database, the server causes the call to be placed via a standard route.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the server performs a verification process on a telephone number being registered.

20. The system of claim 18 wherein the server automatically switched the call to the standard connection if the carrier-independent network does not meet user specifications.

21. The system of claim 18 wherein the server determines a dynamic address associated with the registered telephone number and provides the dynamic address to the carrier-independent database.

22. The system of claim 18 wherein the server determines quality and availability of the peer-to-peer connection.

23. The system of claim 18 wherein the server provides an updated copy of the carrier-independent database to coupled nodes.

24. A method comprising:

receiving, via a processor, a first existing carrier-issued telephone number associated with a callee to be called by a caller associated with a second existing carrier-issued telephone number;

performing, via the processor, a determination whether the first existing carrier-issued telephone number matches a registered telephone number stored in a carrier-independent database;

returning, via the processor, a status based on the determination, wherein if the first existing carrier-issued telephone number matches the registered telephone number in the carrier-independent database, the status triggering, via the processor, a call from the caller to the callee via a peer-to-peer connection using an electronic address associated with the registered telephone number in the carrier-independent database and wherein if the first existing carrier-issued telephone number does not match the registered telephone number in the carrier-independent database, the status triggering, via the processor, the call via a standard route, wherein the call is associated with the first existing carrier-issued telephone number and the second existing carrier-issued telephone number; and

based on a quality standard of the peer-to-peer connection not being acceptable during the call as determined, via the processor, during the call, automatically, switching, via the processor, the call from the peer-to-peer connection to the standard route during the call and without dropping the call.

25. A method comprising:

receiving, via a server, a first existing carrier-issued telephone number associated with a callee to be called by a caller associated with a second carrier-issued telephone number;

determining, via the server, a status of a match between the first existing carrier-issued telephone number and a registered telephone number stored in the carrier-independent database via using the first existing carrier-issued telephone number as a lookup key in the carrier-independent database;

based on the status indicating a match between the first existing carrier-issued telephone number and the registered telephone number in the carrier-independent database:

identifying, via the server, an electronic address stored in the carrier-independent database, wherein the electronic address is associated with the registered telephone number in the carrier-independent database, and

causing, via the server, a call to be placed from the caller to the callee based on the electronic address via a carrier-independent peer-to-peer connection, wherein the call is associated with the first existing carrier-issued telephone number and the second existing carrier-issued telephone number; and

based on the status indicating no match between the existing carrier-issued telephone number and the registered telephone number in the carrier-independent database, causing, via the server, the call to be placed via a standard route.

26. The method of claim 25 , wherein the carrier-independent database is updateable off a data source remote to the server, wherein the data source hosts a data source database, wherein the carrier-independent database is updateable off the data source such that the carrier-independent database contains a copy of the data source database.

27. The method of claim 26 , wherein the server is an iPBX server.