Telephony terminal
View Patent ↗Methods and apparatus implementing a telephony terminal for connecting a telephone to a data network. In one implementation, a telephony system includes: a phone connection for connecting to a telephone; a network connection for connecting to a network; and a controller connected to said phone connection and to said network connection; wherein said controller provides a phone service for processing inflation for said phone connection, said controller provides a network service for processing information for said network connection, and said controller provides a network voice service for converting information to and from a network voice format.
1. An apparatus, comprising:
a phone connection configured to connect to an analog telephone;
a network connection configured to connect to a wireless wide area network (WWAN) that provides access to a plain old telephone service (POTS) telephone network and high-speed data access to a data network; and
a controller connected to the phone connection and the network connection,
wherein the controller is configured to provide a network voice service that converts information to and from a network voice format and exchanges the information between the analog telephone and data network.
2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the controller includes a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service configured to process voice information from the analog telephone to generate Internet Protocol (IP) data carrying the voice information.
3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the phone connection is a universal serial bus (USB) connection.
4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the network connection is a registered jack 45 (RJ-45) connection.
5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the network connection is a broadband connection.
6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the WWAN is a code division multiple access (CDMA) network.
7. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a peripheral connection connected to the controller configured to connect to a peripheral device.
8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the peripheral connection is a universal serial bus (USB) connection.
9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to provide Internet services to a computer system connected to the apparatus.
10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the computer system is a laptop computer.
11. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the computer system is a personal digital assistant (PDA).
12. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the controller provides a browser service configured to transfer information for browser applications between the computer system and the network connection.
13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the browser service is further configured to support a web browser application.
14. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the controller is further configured to provide a message service that transfers message data for message applications between the computer system and the network connection.
15. A method, comprising:
coupling an analog telephone to a wireless local loop (WLL) telephony terminal using a phone connection on the WLL telephony terminal;
receiving information from the analog telephone through the phone connection on the WLL telephony terminal;
preparing intermediate information based on the information according to an indicated service specified in the information;
preparing network data based on the intermediate information according to a network protocol for a wireless wide area network (WWAN) connected to the WLL telephony terminal, wherein the WWAN provides access to a conventional plain old telephone service (POTS) telephone network and high-speed data access to a data network; and
sending the network data to the WWAN.
16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the coupling the analog telephone comprises coupling the analog telephone using a registered jack 11 (RJ-11) connection.
17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the coupling the analog telephone comprises coupling the analog telephone using a universal serial bus (USB) connection.
18. The method of claim 15 , further comprising coupling the WLL telephony terminal to the WWAN using an RJ-45 connection.
19. The method of claim 15 , further comprising connecting to the WWAN using a broadband connection.
20. The method of claim 15 , wherein the preparing the network data comprises preparing the network data according to a code division multiple access (CDMA).
21. The method of claim 15 , wherein the preparing the intermediate information comprises preparing the intermediate information according to a voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service.
22. The method of claim 15 , wherein the preparing the intermediate information comprises preparing the intermediate information according to an email service.
23. the method of claim 15 , wherein the preparing the intermediate information comprises preparing the intermediate information according to a browser service.
24. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
coupling a computer system, including a user interface, to the WLL telephony terminal; and
obtaining Internet services at the computer system via the WLL telephony terminal.
25. The method of claim 24 , wherein the coupling the computer system comprises coupling a laptop computer.
26. The method of claim 24 , wherein the coupling the computer system comprises coupling a personal digital assistant (PDA).
27. A wireless local loop (WLL) telephony terminal, comprising:
means for interfacing to a wireless wide area network (WWAN) that provides access to a plain old telephone service (POTS) telephone network and high-speed data access to a data network;
means for receiving telephone information from an analog telephone;
means for preparing intermediate information based on the telephone information according to an indicated service specified in the telephone information;
means for preparing network data based on the intermediate information according to a network protocol for the WWAN; and
means for transmitting the network data to the data network via the WWAN.
28. A computer-readable medium having computer-readable instructions stored thereon, the instructions comprising:
instructions for connecting to a wireless wide area network (WWAN) that provides access to a plain old telephone service (POTS) telephone network and high-speed data access to a data network;
instructions for preparing intermediate information based on telephone information received from an analog telephone according to an indicated service specified in the telephone information;
instructions for preparing network data based on the intermediate information according to a network protocol for the WWAN; and
instructions for transmitting the network data to the WWAN.