Ever wonder how phone billing works? This post will take you through the 9 steps at a high-level.

  1. Someone orders a service from a merchant (web hosting, ISP service, music, movie or software downloads, etc.).
  2. The merchant offers the “bill to phone” payment option from ILD to charge for the service (just like charging to Visa or MasterCard).
  3. The merchant delivers the service to the consumer.
  4. The merchant processes the charges for the service to the telephone bill through a billing clearinghouse like ILD.
  5. ILD then submits the charges to the Local Exchange Carrier (also know as your local phone company).
  6. From there the consumer is billed by the phone carrier.
  7. The consumer sends the payment to their phone company.
  8. The phone company sends the payment to ILD.
  9. ILD sends the payment to the merchant.

Click here to view how it works.

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