Proxy media service for digital telephony

A Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) service system includes a SIP-enabled soft switch at a telephony service provider, executing code from a coupled machine-readable medium, routing SIP transactions to remote destinations, a media server coupled to the SIP-enabled soft switch storing media including ring tones and music-on-hold for use in progressing transactions, and an interface to a wide-area-network (WAN) for transmitting transactions and media. The SIP-enabled soft switch determines for each transaction from stored data whether media services are to be provided or not provided for that destination, and in the event media services are not to be provided, alters packet data to indicate media services to be provided by a server local to the destination.