The invention relates to a method for creating alternative routes to primary connections, particularly to voice-over IP connections, in which the data transmission occurs in a primary network (106b), and an alternative data transmission occurs in a, as a rule, less efficient secondary network (106a). According to the invention, a system architecture with geographically distributed gateways (102a+b) can be used, said gateways being controlled by a central call processing server (104). In the event that a disturbance of a signaling path (107a) of the communications connection of the primary network (106b) is detected, an alternative connection for the signaling path (107a) is established via the secondary network (106c), the signaling path (107a) of the primary network (106b) is logically linked to the created signaling path of the secondary network (106c), and connection data, which were made available by means of the signaling path (107a) of the primary network (106b), are made available for the signaling path (107a) of the secondary network (106c).