A collect call in the USA an Canada or reverse charge call in the UK and other countries (or calling collect) is a telephone call in which the calling party wants to place a call at the called party's expense. In the past, collect calls were only possible as an operator-assisted call, but with the introduction of computer-based telephone dialing equipment, it is now possible to place a collect call without using an operator, which is called International Freephone Service (IFS) as opposed to Home Country Direct (HCD). Several companies offer services to place collect calls that compete with local service providers. When the operator's number is globally unique, i.e. it does not depend on the caller's country, it is called Universal International Freephone Number (UIFN).