Calling party-paid wireless telephone service

A method for providing wireless telecommunications service on calls to a called party, the method comprising the steps of:

• storing in a database information specifying whether a calling party-paid wireless communication service, in which a calling party is billed for communication charges associated with a call is in an active state or in an inactive state for the called party;
• querying the database on a call-by-call basis to determine whether to bill the calling party or the called party for communication charges associated with wireless communications services provided to the called party, said querying step being in response to a telephone number dialed by a calling party that is associated with a provider that provides the calling party-paid wireless communication service to the called party;
• responsive to a determination in the querying step that the calling party is to be billed for the communication charges, inhibiting billing of the called party for the communication charges.

A method for processing a call from a calling party to a called party, the method comprising the steps of:

• querying a database to determine on a call-by-call basis whether to bill the calling party or the called party for communication charges associated with wireless communications service provided to the called party;
• and
• responsive to a determination in the querying step that the calling party is to be billed for the communication charges, transmitting to a wireless telecommunications switch (1) a telephone number of a wireless telephone to which the call is to be completed, and (2) a telephone number dialed by the party, the dialed telephone number being a number associated with a provider to the called party which provides a service in which the called party can designate that the calling party is to be billed for the communication charges and indicating to the wireless switch to inhibit billing of the called party for the communication charges.