Patent ID: 7636430

Claim:
A method for providing toll-free call origination in a telephone network, compromising: storing in a data structure associated with a toll-free management system, at least one record comprising a name and information used for selecting a directory number used to complete calls to a toll-free service subscriber receiving a toll-free call initiation request message from a message sender connected to a data network, the toll-free call initiation request message being in a predefined format containing the name of the toll-free service subscriber and a telephone number specified by the message sender from which the toll-free call is to be initiated; querying the data structure using the name contained in the call initiation request message to locate a record associated with the toll-free service subscriber in the data structure of the toll-free management system; selecting a conversion number from the record associated with the toll-free service subscriber using predefined selection criteria; using the name to determine a directory number to be used to complete the call to the toll-free service subscriber; initiating a call connection between the telephone number specified by the message sender and the toll-free service subscriber; sending a first connection request message to a service center to establish a first connection with the telephone number specified by the message sender; sending a second connection request message to the service center to establish a second connection between the service center and the conversion number used to complete calls to the toll-free service subscriber; and bridging the first and second connections after both connections are established.