Patent ID: 8520823

Claim:
A method in a computing system for administering telecommunications conference calls at a reduced cost, the computing system communicatively connected to one or more client devices and communicatively connected to a Private Automatic Branch eXchange (PABX) server computing system having a physical location, comprising: receiving from at least one client device of the communicatively connected client devices an indication of a plurality of telephone numbers of participant legs for a desired conference call; on behalf of the at least one client device, using the PABX server computing system connected to a telephone exchange network through a telecommunications carrier, initiating the desired conference call for the plurality of telephone numbers of participant legs, using the telephone exchange network, with a billing rate computed as if the PABX server computing system originated the conference call instead of the at least one client device and charging each participant call leg as if the conference call leg originated from the physical location of the PABX server computing system instead of from the location of the at least one client device, thereby providing lower costs for the desired conference call than if the conference call had been originated by the at least one client device, wherein the billing rate for the conference call is computed by combining Call Data Records produced by the PABX server computing system for each conference call leg; tracking billing information for the conference call based upon the computed billing rate; and providing an interface to the client device to allow the client device to control the initiated conference call.