A system and method for implementing user-to-user data transfer services utilizes an overlay network to transfer user-to-user data between users independent of communications between the users on a conventional signaling network. The system and method examines a frame of data received from a user to determine whether the frame contains user-to-user data. If the frame does contain user-to-user data, the user-to-user data is removed from the frame and formatted for transfer. The formatted user-to-user data is then transferred to the recipient via the overlay network, independently of the communication between the users on the signaling network.