Method and apparatus for using a virtual dial plan

A method for creating a virtual public numbering domain, which will coexist with and be parallel and non-intrusive to the existing geographic North American telephone network numbering plan is disclosed. It will have sufficient capacity to provide additional and more flexible numbering resources which will stimulate and enable many new service applications. The existing telephone network infrastructure has digital switching points and a database system. The method includes receiving at one of the digital switching points a called number, and verifying whether the number called is a number of the virtual public dial plan. If the number called is a number of the virtual public dial plan, the method includes forming with the number called a virtual public address of predetermined length, supplying the virtual public address to the database system to determine a corresponding network node address, supplying the corresponding network node address to the digital switching point and routing the call through the network infrastructure according to the existing dial plan. If the number called is a number of the existing dial plan, the call is routed through the network infrastructure according to the existing dial plan and the number called.