Method of providing intra-company two way voice communications over a data network

摘要

A method of providing an intra-company voice communication service has the general steps of providing a company with a plurality of remote geographic facilities linked by a data network, determining a call traffic pattern for each of the facilities by analyzing a call detail record for each facility, determining performance specifications for the data network, and providing and implementing a converged digital telephony data network. Through the method of the invention, a service may thereby be provided that allows for a company to eliminate public telephone carrier service charges for intra-company phone calls between remote facilities. A preferred embodiment of the method of the invention utilizes the World Wide Web for carrying out various of the steps of the invention to achieve time and travel savings. Further embodiments of the invention include programming the gateway at one or more of the company facilities to access a PSTN whereby phone calls from the data network may be sent and received over the PSTN. An additional embodiment of the invention interconnects data networks from a plurality of companies which each are individually intra-connected between facilities to carry digital telephony format communications. digital telephony format calls may thereby be sent between any of the various facilities of the two companies. Additionally, a gateway at one or more of the facilities of the interconnected companies may be programmed to interface with a PSTN to send and receive phone calls over the PSTN.