Dave Levenson <dave@westmark.westmark.com> (06/17/91)
In article <telecom11.437.2@eecs.nwu.edu>, Bob_Frankston%Slate_ Corporation@mcimail.com (Bob Frankston) writes: > The issue of protocols raises its ugly head. > Pac*Bell is able to provide some compelling features because it owns > the network... > [Moderator's Note: One of the nicest features of telco-operated voice > mail is the stutter dialtone which advises the subscriber of new > messages waiting. It should not be that hard for telco to provide this > to the competitors:... A few years ago, I developed a voice-mail add-on for a PBX. Our machine interfaced with the host PBX over nothing more than a Tip/Ring station line. A feature-addition to the PBX created a station class-of-service for this purpose. The protocol? Very simple: The PBX would forward calls to one of our station lines if the called station was busy or did not answer. When we went off-hook, the PBX would send us DTMF, telling us who was calling, who was being called, and why we got the call. After taking a message, we could go off-hook on one of our special lines, and enter a sequence of DTMF digits which caused the PBX to light the 'message waiting' indicator on a station, or to enable 'stutter tone' if the station was not equipped with a visual indicator. Our voice mail package would work fine with any CO or PBX capable of providing a similar feature set! Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Warren, NJ, USA AT&T Mail: !westmark!dave Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857