Prepaid long-distance telephone service system with flexible operating parameters

A method for providing long-distance service comprising:

• establishing a plurality of different access phone numbers;
• preselecting a plurality of different sets of global operating parameters, each preselected set corresponding to a respective one of the access phone numbers;
• receiving a telephone call on one of said access phone numbers;
• identifying the access phone number called to initiate the received telephone call;
• retrieving fie preselected set of global operating parameters corresponding with the identified access phone number called;
• collecting a destination telephone number;
• completing the call to the destination telephone number in accordance with the retrieved preselected set of global operating parameters;
• establishing a plurality of calling card numbers;
• associating at least two of said calling card numbers with one of the different access phone numbers;
• preselecting a plurality of different groups of processing parameters, each preselected group corresponding to a respective one of the calling card numbers;
• collecting a credit card number;
• identifying the credit card number collected;
• retrieving the preselected group of processing parameters corresponding with the identified credit card number;
• comparing the collected destination telephone number to the retrieved processing parameters;
• and
• processing the call to the destination telephone number in accordance with the retrieved processing parameters.