US Patent 7844256 Enabling dispatch calls for long-distance-restricted subscribers

A dispatch call request is received from a calling party to make an inter-urban dispatch call to a called party over a telecommunications network. A determination is first made as to whether the calling party is restricted from making inter-urban calls and, if so, a determination is then made as to whether the called party is an unrestricted access subscriber. In one embodiment, the dispatch call will be connected to the called party when the calling party is restricted from making inter-urban calls and the called party is an unrestricted access subscriber.