Abstract: A call contact platform (CCP) is provisioned with handles that belong to call recipients. Each recipient can have any number of handles in the CCP and each handle is associated with conditions under which a call employing the handle may be established. Specifically, when a party supplies a handle to a telecommunication network (previously given to the party by the call recipient), the network contacts the CCP and interacts with it as required in conformance with stored instructions. If appropriate, the CCP instructs the telecommunication network to establish a connection. A recipient can also give a party a handle that includes a message, where the handle is not prestored in the CCP. After the network contacts the CCP, the party provides the message, the CCP extracts instructions from the message, or retrieves instructions with the help of the message, and, as before, causes the telecommunication network to establish a connection, if appropriate.