A method and system (10) is provided for making a domestic or international long distance call through the dialing of a local number. The system includes a telephone which is connected to a traditional Public Switched Telephone Network (13) which is coupled to a softswitch (15). The system also includes a data switch (18), a session border controller (19), a prepaid database (20), a series of call processors (22), and a web interface (23). The session border controller is coupled to an outgoing call connection through the public internet (24). The softswitch provides local access numbers (31) that callers will use to get into the system. The system and method combines the user's telephone number (37) with the local access number to generate a unique sequence (39) which is then found in the database and correlated to a desired long distance number 36 to which the caller is ultimately connected.