Use of mobile unit to provide delivery path optimization to land-based unit

A telephone system for enabling a local call over a public switch telephone network to be rerouted to a remote location, which would otherwise represent a long distance call, comprising:

• a mobile unit;
• a serving switch for receiving a long distance call from said mobile unit;
• a first data unit connected to the public switch telephone network local to said serving switch;
• and
• a register for responding to a long distance call made by said mobile unit and received by said serving switch, said register providing information to said serving switch about said first data unit and directing said serving switch to connect said mobile unit to complete the long distance call as a local call.

A telephone system for completing long distance calls as local calls over an alternative non-public switch telephone network comprising:

• switching means for interacting with a signal transmitted by a mobile unit requesting a long distance call;
• a plurality of geographically distributed data units connected to said switching means and to the alternative network;
• and
• register means for receiving a signal from said switching means and in response thereto selecting a specific data unit from said plurality of data units so that a long distance call can be completed as a local call through said specific data unit and connected alternative network.

A method for one or more units receiving and processing long distance telephone requests from a mobile unit comprising:

• said mobile unit sending a desired long-distance number;
• receiving said long-distance number;
• processing said long-distance number;
• determining the access number of a data unit connected to a non-public switch telephone network that is local to said mobile unit;
• altering said long-distance number to said access number;
• sending said access number;
• and
• completing a local call to said data unit from said mobile unit.