In an internet telephony system, toll-free service and the calls that are accepted and paid for can be specified by the IP telephony system user to be limited according to the calling party's identity, time of day, day of week or other criteria. Data that is used to screen or filter incoming calls is programmed into a call manager by the IP telephone system user's broadband residential gateway. Using such a system the user can carefully screen calls that are paid for and more closely control telecommunications service costs. More generally, the user has the ability to store predefined call handling criteria, which may be executed by the broadband residential gateway and/or the call manager.