How do you make a long distance call without a carrier?

There are several ways:

1) If you have a calling card, they generally have a toll-free (800) number to call in order to place a calling card call. You do not have to have a long distance carrier in order to call an 800 (or 888, 877, 866, 855) number.

You can buy a prepaid calling card from most drug and grocery stores. Or you can order a non-prepaid calling card from a long distance company.

2) You can dial a "101" code in front of the number.

Every long distance company has several "carrier access codes" that you can dial in order to make sure your phone called is carried by that long distance phone company. You dial this number if you don't have a default long distance carrier or if you want to use a carrier that is different than your default long distance carrier. For example, if you dial 1010288 in front of a phone number, the call will be carried by AT&T no matter what long distance carrier you subscribe (or don't subscribe) to. Caution: AT&T will charge an EXTREME rate if you dial this number and are not an AT&T long distance subscriber.

There are some long distance companies that used to advertise their 101 service. They still exist, but they don't advertise much any more and their rates are a lot higher than they used to be. You can still find them on the internet.