Sean Williams <0004715238@mcimail.com> (06/14/91)
The Moderator writes: > One of the nicest features of telco-operated voice mail is the stutter > dialtone which advises the subscriber of new messages waiting. United Telephone provides a voicemail service called "MessageLine". When I ordered my service, I asked about the ability of the system to notify me of new messages. Stutter dialtone is not provided by United, so they programmed the MessageLine to call my house whenever I receive a message. The phone rings three times whenever I receive a message. (This could also be programmed to call your pager, or cellphone, etc., so long as the call is local.) And yes, the outdial/paging feature can be toggled on/off by calling your mailbox and entering a two-digit command. It was confusing to the rest of my family, however, to receive calls which had no real caller on the other side (ie: the voicemail doesn't talk when it calls the house.) so I set up a distinctive ringing number and had the voicemail reprogrammed to call it. Everyone is happy now, so long as I turn off the paging feature at night ... > Also, telco *could* now provide 'programmable forward on busy / no answer' > if they wanted to. Ameritech Mobile....allows me to toggle 'forward on > busy / no answer' as I wish; AND program it to any number, anywhere, but > Illinois Bell (my hardwired service) insists that this feature can > only be programmed in the CO on a work order... United Telephone's "Call-Forward/Busy" and "Call-Forward/No Answer" are two separate services, individually billed. I can turn on one, the other, or both. (It's sort of dumb to turn on both of them, though, because the way it's programmed "Call-Forward/Busy" overrides "Call-Forward/No answer" if they're both on at the same time. You can use only one at a time.) Incidentally, Rochester Telephone provides the service you describe above. Destination numbers for both Call-Forward/Busy and Call-Forward/No Answer can be changed at any time, and you can also change the number of rings Call-Forward/No Answer waits for before forwarding the caller. Sean E. Williams | seanwilliams@mcimail.com Spectrum Telecommunications | "I own Spectrum, so I'm 333 Prospect Avenue / PO Box 227 | really speaking for myself!" Duncannon, PA 17020-0227 USA | voicemail: +1 717 957 8127