MULTIMEDIA TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORK AND SERVICE

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a multimedia telecommunications network for providing telephone service which may involve one or more of audio, video, and data communications. SOLUTION: In one example of the invention, the multimedia telecommunications network contains a virtual meeting services complex which provides multimedia telecommunications service to subscribers of the network. Multimedia telephone calls can be completed automatically by the virtual meeting services complex in a manner similar to that now used to complete normal audio telephone calls. The multimedia telecommunications network containing this virtual meeting services complex is able to connect together users having different equipment and is also able to handle integrated and nonintegrated network access mechanisms.