MULTIMEDIA COMMUNICATIONS VIA PUBLIC TELEPHONE NETWORKS

Methods and systems are disclosed for providing multimedia telecommunication services to multimedia workstations (100, 102). The multimedia workstations (100, 102) communicate with a multimedia central office (112) which includes a digital switch complex (150) coupled to a public digital telephone network (106), and at least one twisted pair transceiver (157) coupled to at least one twisted pair link in a telephone loop plant. The multimedia central office (112) further includes at least one switch complex (154) operatively associated with the digital switch complex and at least one twisted pair transceiver. The multimedia central office is capable of transceiving signals with multimedia workstations interfaced to the public digital telephone network, and with multimedia workstations interfaced to at least one twisted pair link in the telephone loop plant. The signals which are transceived include audio signals, video signals, and digital data signals used in providing the multimedia telecommunications services.