Patent ID: 8265243

Claim:
A method for providing telephone services to a subscriber by the subscriber's telephone service provider, the method comprising: receiving from a subscriber a selection of one or more telephone numbers for members of a calling circle, at least one of the telephone numbers associated with a telephone service provider other than the subscriber's telephone service provider; tracking calling activity by the subscriber, the calling activity including telephone calls between the subscriber and one or more phone numbers of the members of the calling circle; charging the subscriber a first rate for calls between phone numbers of members of the calling circle and a second rate for calls between phone numbers of persons outside the calling circle, the first rate being discounted with respect to the second rate; receiving from the subscriber a selection to add a member to the subscriber's calling circle; and disallowing the subscriber to add the member to the subscriber's calling circle if a predefined limit on the maximum number of members in the calling circle has been reached.