Glossary of Long Distance Service Related Terms

Access Charges

Pricing system developed by the Federal Communications Commission that charges the customer for access to the network. These fees compensate local telephone companies for the loss of long-distance subsidies.

Answer Supervision

Used to accurately start billing when the called party answers the phone, thus assuring the price of your calls will be accurate.

Automatic Number Identification (ANI)

A service that provides the receiver of a telephone call with the number of the calling phone. This is what makes caller ID work. The telephone service provider determines whether and how this information is transfered. The service is often provided by sending the digital tone multi frequency (dual tone multi frequency) tones along with the call.