Patent ID: 8913724

Claim:
A method for assigning a local alias telephone number to a long distance telephone number in connection with a pre-paid account, comprising the steps of: accepting a call from an existing user of the pre-paid account; obtaining said call's originating telephone number using the Caller-ID service; prompting the user to provide said long distance number; obtaining a pre-paid account number corresponding to said user; comparing said pre-paid account number and long distance number against an alias number database to confirm that no local alias number has been assigned to said long distance number and pre-paid account number combination; upon said confirmation, identifying from a pool of available local alias numbers a local alias number having the same area code, or an area code from the same calling area, as said originating telephone number; associating said available local alias number with said long distance number, said pre-paid account number, and said originating telephone number, and entering one or more records denoting said association in said alias number database; and sending a message to said user advising of the association of said local alias number with said long distance number, said call's originating telephone number, and said pre-paid account number.