Embodiments of the present invention provide a network infrastructure operable to support the exchange of communications, such as textual, image, video and voice communications, between a first client terminal having a first user identifier and service by a first service provider and a second (destination) client terminal having a second user identifier and serviced by a second service provider. This network infrastructure includes a packet-switch network, a shared database and a number of client terminals serviced by different service providers. These terminals include a network interface and are identified by their service provider by a network address. The shared database associates user identifiers with network addresses. This allows a user to access the shared database in order to initiate a call request from the first client terminal to the second client terminal. The first client terminal receives the network address or vectoring information on the network address of the destination terminal through the shared database. This shared database may also have metadata used to manage the call.