Abstract: Electronic commerce is enhanced through the use of the state-based management capability of the public telephony infrastructure, adapted for use in Internet and other network transactions. A telephony engine such as the Nortel Networks DMS™ switching platform is configured to initiate, process and terminate electronic transactions such as consumer Web purchase, rather than the telephone events for which such hardware was designed. The transaction engine may, for instance, detect, time and record billing for the logging of a Internet user on to a game site, video download or other service or product. Once a transaction has entered its termination state, analogous to the hanging up of a telephone call, a billing record is generated which is transmitted through the usual billing services of the telephony network. Consumers may therefore locate and pay for a variety of services on the Internet and other networks while relying on the convenience of regular monthly telephone billing.