An apparatus is described comprising: telephony circuitry electrically coupled to a telephone network, the telephony circuitry to transmit and receive telephone signals over the local telephone network; a first network controller electrically coupled to the telephone network, the network controller to transmit and receive digital data signals over the local telephone network; and a second network controller communicatively coupled to one or more external devices, wherein the second network controller provides access to the local telephone network to the one or more external devices via a first communication interface coupling the second network controller with the first network controller.