Abstract: Apparatus and a method for controlling the establishment of telecommunications calls. In response to a service request from a calling party, a switch serving the calling party transmits a query identifying the called party to a shared database. The database provides information identifying the switch for accessing the called party, and information for identifying port(s) for accessing the called party from that switch. When a customer moves from one location to another, the database is updated to reflect the switch and port identification associated with the new location of the customer. If the called customer is a mobile customer, the database maintains information concerning the current location of that customer so that calls can be immediately switched to that customer.