A method and apparatus are provided for operating a data protocol telephone that is used in a call for exchanging voice information between a first party human user of the data protocol telephone and a second human party to the call at least partially through the Internet. The method includes the steps of translating a set of control instructions exchanged over a first path between a controller of the data protocol telephone and the data protocol telephone, where said exchanged control instructions are translated between an Internet packet format readable by the controller and a set of repeating frame protocols readable by the data protocol telephone and transcoding the translated control instructions on the first Internet path and the voice information exchanged on a second Internet path, where the second Internet path is different than the first Internet path, said translated control instructions and exchanged voice information being transcoded between a single time division multiplexed repeating frame of the data protocol telephone and a packet format of the Internet.