Method for Converging Telephone Number and IP Address

A method for converging telephone numbers and Idata addresses follows the steps of (a) accessing from a first memory location of a communication appliance one of an E.164 telephone number or an IPv6 address; (b) using the E.164 criteria of [Country Code-Identification Code-Subscriber Number 1-Subscriber Number 2-Extension-Ext2-Ext3] for a telephone number, converting that number to an IPv6 hexadecimal notation IP address in the format [::::[]:[:[]], and converting in the reverse for an IP address to a telephone number; (c) storing the telephone number or address in a separate memory location of the appliance; and (d) depending on the nature of a communication session initiated by a user, retrieving the appropriate IP address or telephone number as the destination for the communication.