Telecommunications least cost routing system

1. A method of populating a least cost routing database, the method comprising:

receiving from a carrier a bid for routing a telephone call to a destination;

analyzing the received bid to generate a projected business result;

presenting the projected business result to the carrier before loading the received bid into the least cost routing database;

automatically loading the received bid into a least cost routing database to generate an updated least cost routing database; and

making the updated least cost routing database accessible for use in determining one or more least cost routes.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the bid is received from the carrier over a network.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the destination is represented by a Local Access and Transport Area identifier.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving a bid further comprises receiving a file identifier corresponding to a file comprising two or more bids.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

validating the received bid based on one or more business rules before loading the received bid into the least cost routing database.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:

receiving input from the carrier specifying an historical period; and

generating the projected business result based on data associated with the specified historical period.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein automatically loading the received bid into the least cost routing database further comprises replacing a corresponding previous bid.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving a second bid from the carrier responsive to the presenting of the projected business result.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the project business result corresponds to projected costs attributable to the carrier based on the received bid and based on historical information.

10. A computer program product, encoded on a computer-readable medium, operable to cause data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving from a carrier a bid for routing a telephone call to a destination;

analyzing the received bid to generate a projected business result;

presenting the projected business result to the carrier before loading the received bid into the least cost routing database;

automatically loading the received bid into a least cost routing database to generate an updated least cost routing database; and

making the updated least cost routing database accessible for use in determining one or more least cost routes.

11. The computer program product of claim 10 , wherein the bid is received from the carrier over a network.

12. The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein the destination is represented by a Local Access and Transport Area identifier.

13. The computer program product of claim 10 , wherein receiving a bid further comprises receiving a file identifier corresponding to a file comprising one or more bids.

14. The computer program product of claim 10 , further operable to cause data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

validating the received bid based on one or more business rules before loading the received bid into the least cost routing database.

15. The computer program product of claim 14 , further operable to cause data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving input from the carrier specifying an historical period; and

generating the projected business result based on data associated with the specified historical period.

16. The computer program product of claim 10 , further operable to cause data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising: replacing a corresponding previous bid upon automatically loading the received bid into the least cost routing database.

17. The computer program product of claim 10 further comprising receiving an updated bid from the carrier responsive to the presenting of the projected business result.

18. A system comprising:

a computer-readable medium storing a least cost routing database; and

a computing system including processor electronics configured to perform operations comprising:

receiving from a carrier a bid for routing a telephone call to a destination;

analyzing the received bid to generate a projected business result; and

presenting the projected business result to the carrier before loading the received bid into the least cost routing database;

automatically loading the received bid into the least cost routing database to generate an updated least cost routing database; and

making the updated least cost routing database accessible for use in determining one or more least cost routes.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein the bid is received from the carrier over a network.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the destination is represented by a Local Access and Transport Area identifier.

21. The system of claim 18 , wherein receiving a bid further comprises receiving a file identifier corresponding to a file comprising one or more bids.

22. The system of claim 18 , wherein the processor electronics are further configured to perform operations comprising:

validating the received bid based on one or more business rules before loading the received bid into the least cost routing database.

23. The system of claim 22 , wherein the processor electronics are further configured to perform operations comprising:

receiving input from the carrier specifying an historical period; and

generating the projected business result based on data associated with the specified historical period.

24. The system of claim 18 , wherein the processor electronics are further configured to perform operations comprising:

replacing a corresponding previous bid upon automatically loading the received bid into the least cost routing database.

25. The system of claim 18 , wherein the project business result corresponds to projected costs attributable to the carrier based on the received bid and based on historical information.