PURPOSE: To perform a carefully thought charging service by forming a speech suspended state by transmitting/receiving a suspension signal, and performing the calculation of a fee by separating a suspended time zone from a general speech time zone.

CONSTITUTION: When an outgoing person (α) issues a call to the telephone set (b) of an incoming person (β) and the call is connected and the incoming person (β) makes the outgoing person (α) wait due to a certain cause then, speech is suspended, the incoming person (β) sends the suspending signal h(b) to an exchange B by using the telephone set B. The exchange B sends the suspended signal H(B) between stations to an exchange A. The exchange A holds a working speech path with a telephone set (a) transiently, then, the suspended state is set. Charging is performed by separating the fee during the suspended state from a general speech charge. Meanwhile, when the incoming person (β) desires to restart the speech, the same operation as that of a suspended operation is performed, and the similar signal transfer is performed, and at this time, the exchange A generates a speech state by recovering the speech path held transiently, then, charges the general speech charge.