Home Service Plans: The Pinless Calling Card

When you see home services plans offered by companies like Yak, Onlinetel and Student Phone Plan: they are just advanced calling cards. Below is a description of how they work.

Sample home service plan function:

1. User Dials Local Access Number
2. “You have $5 remaining in your account”
3. “Please dial your destination number”
4. 1-555-688-8567
5. “You have 90 minutes for this call”
6. Ring…ring..

How Home Service Plans Work:
Since calling cards were created, the systems that they run on have been able to recognize the originating telephone number (ANI) and link this number to an account residing on the server. By linking the ANI to an account, the system does not need to rely on the entered PIN number to determine what the calling card’s available balance is. Pre-registering a user’s ANI and associated calling card balance with the calling card system creates “pinless dialing”. When a user calls in, the phone they are using sends the ANI to the calling card system and the system recognizes the user and their associated balance.

If no ANI is passed to the system, or if an unrecognized phone is used, the phone card system will prompt the user for their PIN number.

Advanced functions of Home Service Plans

• Multiple phone numbers can be registered with the plan
• Users can add money to their account through the phone system or online
• Speed-dial numbers can be registered within the plan. Once the local access number is dialed, the user can press a key to speed dial a commonly called number.
• Balances and call history can be viewed online.

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