An architecture and technique for creating self-installable and portable
telephony (dial tone) service that can be moved between any two locations
that has access to both a voice communication network and a data network.
A telephony adapter is used as a subscriber premises device that is
connected between a conventional telephone set and both a voice network
and a data network. A provisioning server communicates with the telephony
adapter through the data network and maintains a record of the
subscriber's local telephone number and IP address of the telephony
adapter. As the subscriber moves from one location to another, the
telephony adapter (once turned "on") will communicate with the
provisioning server and re-establish phone service, always using the same
local phone number of the subscriber.