service provider

An organisation that provides a service by telephone, such as an 0800 (toll free) number. The service provider buys the services of a telecom supplier (e.g. BT) but advertises the service and deals with the calls itself. Increasingly, service providers are now also managing their advanced call-routing.

(1996-08-27)

Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)