Patent ID: 7269408

Claim:
A method of alerting a caller associated with an affiliated service provider of a surcharge for a phone call from the caller to a called party associated with a non-affiliated service provider, the method comprising: populating a surcharge database to include phone number identifiers of callable parties associated with the non-affiliated provider and to include surcharges such that each phone number identifier is associated with a surcharge, wherein a surcharge associated with a phone number identifier of a callable party represents a fee of the non-affiliated provider for use of the non-affiliated provider network to complete a phone call from a caller associated with the affiliated provider to the callable party; determining a called party phone number of a phone call from a caller associated with the affiliated provider to a called party; determining whether the called party phone number is associated with any of the phone number identifiers in the surcharge database to determine whether the phone call is subject to a surcharge; if the called party phone number is associated with a phone number identifier in the surcharge database, determining the surcharge in the surcharge database for the called party phone number as a function of the associated phone number identifiers; and alerting the caller of the determined surcharge including the associated fee prior to routing the call from the affiliated network to the non-affiliated network to complete the call from the caller to the called party.