stv@qplx.UUCP (Steve Vance) (03/02/84)
(for those of you who don't know, ESS stands for Electronic Switching
System, the kind of equipment your local phone company can have which
makes it possible for them to offer you special features like Call
Waiting and Call Forwarding)
There are lots of ways Bell could improve on Custom Calling features,
heaven knows why they don't. For example, why should I have to go
home to turn Call Forwarding on and off? Imagine this: I call a special
number in my exchange, type in my phone number and a code number, and
then the number I want calls forwarded to now. Or maybe I'll be on
the road now, and I want my answering machine to answer my calls.
In that case I would want to turn Call Forwarding off completely.
As a matter of fact, I recently disconnected Call Forwarding because
the opportunities where it was usable were so few. At the same time,
I disconnected my 30-number speed calling, and installed the 176-number
"Demon Dialer" I bought from Heathkit and put together (Radio Shack
has them already assembled if this is beyond your capabilities).
Instead of just two digits, I can use up to six, which makes
mnemonics (like MOM and TWA) possible. ESS could be just as
flexible. In my case, MOM is long-distance, and the Demon Dialer
dials Sprint for me and enters my auth code before dialing her number.
It also has one-button redial and "keep dialing till they answer".
I have been thinking of getting one for my office phone, too; they're
great.
There are lots of things ESS could easily be programmed to do that
you can get aftermarket devices to do, like pressing the "*" button
to put a call on hold so you can change phones, or not allowing calls
thru for a certain number of hours. Or how about an ESS alarm clock,
having it call you back at a time you specify? And yet, the same old
five Custom Calling features have stood, unchanged, since their initial
release 15 years ago. Perhaps someone who works for one of the many
"Telephone Company" sites on this net could tell us if any changes
are in store?
I have heard that a survey was done somehow, somewhere, that proved
that the revenue gained by giving Call Waiting away, free, would be
much more than if everybody signed up and paid for it. It's like giving
away phone books--the more calls you make that are successfully
completed, the higher your phone bill can be; and Call Waiting certainly
allows more calls to be completed. Think about it! Anybody got any
ideas why ESS is so far from its full potential?
Steve Vance
{ucbvax,ihnp4,amd70,zehntel,onyx}!dual!qplx!stv
Qantel Corporation, Hayward, CAlied@ihlts.UUCP (Bob Lied) (03/04/84)
The following is just my opinion, and is not necessarily the
opinion of my employer, or any living, rational person.
I think that the reasons that switching systems don't offer more complex
reasons are these:
1. The overhead of adding all these services is unacceptable to
the people who have to buy and maintain switching systems.
When you consider the cost of a simple ESS, and the complexity
required to maintain the reliability expected of one, it is
not surprising that customer features are few and far between.
Most of the new features that go into ESS's are not for the
benefit of the consumer, but for the aid of the people who
have to run the switch and the telephone network.
2. Many of the features previously mentioned (speed calling/refuse calls/
wake-up calls) are best done within the telephone equipment in your
home. There's no reason why the local switching center should
perform all these when simple hardware from Radio Shack can do it.
3. The telephone sucks as an input device. When features get more
complex, those 12 TOUCH-TONE(tm) keys just don't cut it. How
can you sell features that require complex combinations of digits
when some people refuse to make long distance calls because they're
confused about dialing 1 or 0 first?
4. Switching systems as we know them are about to become obsolete.
ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) will replace all that
flash-hook/dial *77/enter 14-digit code crapola with packet
signaling. All those neat-o features become a lot easier to do
(and a lot easier to use) when you have a network of computers
talking to each other. It's a ways off for Joe Schmoe in his
suburban manse, but it's the goal that telecommunications is
heading toward.
Further discussion should probably be directed to fa.telecom.
Bob Lied ihnp4!ihlts!lied
"That's life -- you can tell by the way it sucks."stanwyck@ihuxr.UUCP (Don Stanwyck) (03/05/84)
[The following is not an add, nor is it the opinions of any but me.]
The author of the original article complains about the way things work with
the Custom Calling Features. To this I have three things to say........
1. Be glad you have them at all. Many parts of the country do not.
2. You would have many better and more wonderful things if it were not
for the regulatory agencies. At ATT Bell Labs Export division we
make many of the things you and I want as our custom calling features,
but we only sell them internationally, because the various fed. reg.
agencies say we can't sell them here. Example - alarm call service,
which would allow you to program the switch to call you whenever you
want - can't sell it here, cause the regulated phone companies can't
compete with the alarm clock manufacturers.
3. Wait for ISDN - the calling system of the future. You will be able to
get lots of things then, at least if you live outside the US. We still
don't know what the gov't is going to let us do here.
Good luck. And if you have a complaint, let your phone company know in writing.
Maybe they will consider the changes if enough people want them.
--
________
( ) Don Stanwyck
@( o o )@ 312-979-3062
( || ) Cornet-367-3062
( \__/ ) ihnp4!ihuxr!stanwyck
(______) Bell Labs @ Naperville, ILwetcw@pyuxa.UUCP (T C Wheeler) (03/05/84)
I think, though I'm not that sure, that the reason that ESS cannot do all the neat things it has a potential to do is that the FCC said that AT&T,et.al. were not allowed to put in computer type operations until just recently. With divestiture, you will most likely begin to see many of the Gee Whiz things happening to the phone system. ESS is supposed to be a switch, albiet a fancy one, and is not supposed to act like a computer. But, as many know, it is really a computer. With the new era in communications just starting, the ESS will be taking off its disgiuse and acting more like what it really should be. T. C. Wheeler
rcj1@ihuxi.UUCP (Ray) (03/08/84)
Hang on folks because things are starting to pick up. I can't be specific, but AT&T will be coming out with many new features in the near future. Because of the stiff competition out there I am unable to be specific.. Ray, ihuxi!rcj1