Regional independent tandem telephone switch

A network comprising:

• a plurality of routers operable to transmit long distance communications across the network,
• wherein at least one of the plurality of routers is communicably connected to a plurality of regionally independent tandem switches, the plurality of regionally independent tandem switches being associated with a voice over IP (VoIP) network and configured to receive and process long distance communications transmitted on the voice over IP network,
• wherein the at least one of the plurality of routers is configured to performed the steps of:
• receiving a long distance communication originating from a communication device associated with the network;
• sending status update transmissions to the plurality of regionally independent tandem switches;
• in response to the sending of the status update transmissions, receiving a status message from at least one of the plurality of regionally independent tandem switches, wherein the status message comprises operational information about the at least one of the plurality of regionally independent tandem switches;
• performing load balancing among the plurality of regionally independent tandem switches by selecting a regionally independent tandem switch of the plurality of regionally independent tandem switches to route the long distance communication based on the received status message, wherein the received status message indicates at least a load of the at least one of the plurality of regionally independent tandem switches;
• and
• routing the long distance communication to the selected regionally independent tandem switch.