A VoIP telephone operates in an IP environment wherein at least a portion of the signaling from a remote gateway is included within a media session real time protocol stream. The VoIP telephone comprises a network communication system for encapsulating data into IP frames for exchange with remote devices over a frame switched network. A system client application is coupled to the network communication system and exchanges call set up messages with a remote VoIP gateway to establish a media channel for the exchange of the real time protocol streams. The system client also provides VoIP status signals to a presentation module. A dialog system is coupled to the network communication system and: i) translates frames of compressed digital audio data originated from a remote device to recreate remote voice band; ii) detects and compresses local voice band for transmission to the VoIP gateway; iii) detects in band signaling within the voice band; and iv) generates in band status signals to the presentation module. The presentation module receives session status signals from each of the system client and from the dialog system and drives a display of session status messages on a display screen.