System and method for improving communication between a public switched telephone network and a packet network

A system and method for improving communication between a switched network (133) and a packet network (136) is disclosed. In a simplified embodiment, a signaling gateway (152) is utilized for converting signaling in a first protocol into a second protocol, and from the second protocol to said first protocol. At least one media gateway (142,144) is utilized for converting multimedia provided in a first format into a second format, and from the second format into the first format. A session router (162) for selecting at least one multimedia transmission route to a destination (192) is also utilized, wherein the destination is specified by the switched network. In addition, a media router (164) is also utilized for guiding the multimedia to the destination (192) after conversion by the media gateway.