"Donald E. Kimberlin" <0004133373@mcimail.com> (05/23/91)
OK, Telesleaze fans. Here's a really marvelous way that
opening telecommunications to competition by getting into the FCC's
mandated Open Network Architecture will brighten and benefit all our
lives. (Why is it that the worst seems to come out first?)
It seems someone has a patent to inject advertising messages
in the silent intervals between audible ringing signals. Worse yet,
the RBOCs seem to be all agog at this marvelous new thought about
getting revenue out of otherwise "dead air time!"
Communications attorney Vic Toth of Reston, VA has reported
that a firm he describes as creators of a "home spun invention from a
backyard in Kansas" called Phone Spots, Inc. has the LECs "real hot"
over the idea as they meet in a group called the IILC discussing ways
and means to provide "enhancements" to local exchange switching by
creating access points in the LEC exchange.
Toth's report indicates that telephone consumers might be
compensated for enduring this form of telesleaze by receiving a
discount on their local service bills or being given free local
payphone calls. (Of course, so far only the "techies" are talking.
The commercial office of the LECs has yet to be heard from. From
there, I expect to hear some tripe that no, there's no kickback to
sufferers; rather, PUC permission to inflict ringing-interval
telesleaze as a "means to defer rate increases" -- for at least a
month -- will be their rationale. It's Telco Hymn number 132 for those
who want to look up the words in the LEC Hymnal.)
Well, I guess we can anticipate a whole raft of free market
opportunities to arise from this:
*Advertising agencies are probably already hiring vice presidents
to place spots and research audiences in this whole new market
segment.
*Writers of slogans as once used on Burma-Shave signs along U.S.
highways may once again find employment (as they will have to
fit advertising into four-second slots betweem two-second
audible ringing signals).
*Hardware manufacturers can forecast their market of 14,000
units to sell (this being the number of central offices in the
U.S., as I recall).
*Sellers of 900 rip-offs will have a far more economical and
pervasive means to entice you into further telephone scams
(Just think of listening to a 900 pitch EVERY time you place
a call!)
*LECs will derive yet a tertiary revenue source by tariffing a
monthly charge to *stop* the telesleaze on your order (Do we have
any *7n codes left for an "ad blocking" option?).
....and so on. The mind boggles, once the nausea subsides.
I bet our readers at Rolling Meadows are already working on
this marvelous enhancement to our lives and well-being. However, the
STP Rule ("Sorry, That's Proprietary") probably applies, so they can't
comment. I'll speak for them:
Bleeeecchhh!Gordon Burditt <gordon@sneaky.lonestar.org> (05/27/91)
> It seems someone has a patent to inject advertising messages > in the silent intervals between audible ringing signals. Worse yet, > the RBOCs seem to be all agog at this marvelous new thought about > getting revenue out of otherwise "dead air time!" I'd love to see this patent make money only by suing people who infringe it, much like a certain company is doing with public-key encryption. This sounds like yet another scheme to jack up the rates for data users. Many modems will abort the call if they detect voice on the line. Ads will do wonders for call completion rates. On the other hand, it might fake out those blasted robot dialers that call and deliver ads. If you hear one of these on your line, call the telephone company and complain about hearing someone else's conversation on your line. Ask if your conversations can be overheard as easily by someone else. (Southwestern Bell seems to take audible crosstalk seriously, as demonstrated during the first big rain after my second line was installed. It seems one side of my line got shorted to one side of someone else's. I could hear someone talking, even over dialtone. They had someone checking on it very fast, in the middle of a miserable thunderstorm.) Then call the advertiser's 800 line (any 800 line they happen to have) and complain. Also call the telephone company business office and hold them responsible for the content of the ads. Try to get them to make good on the warranty. It won't do any good, but maybe the jump in customer-service calls will convince them that ads are a bad idea. One complaint for each non-complaint call you make seems about right. Gordon L. Burditt sneaky.lonestar.org!gordon
John Higdon <john@zygot.ati.com> (05/27/91)
Gordon Burditt <gordon@sneaky.lonestar.org> writes: > This sounds like yet another scheme to jack up the rates for data > users. Many modems will abort the call if they detect voice on the > line. Ads will do wonders for call completion rates. Yes, indeed. Most sleazeTel LD companies use "software answer supervision" for determining when to start the clock on billing. The routines depend on voice detection to "guess" at supervision. If it hears any SIT, then the call is considered failed and no billing is done. On the other hand, if the asymetrical patterns of voice are detected, the call is assumed to be complete and charging begins. COCOTs also use this scheme. Currently, there is a major problem dealing with unavailable cellular phones. Most cellular providers do not use the SIT, but have a dry announcement stating that the called phone is not available. Any carrier not using hardware answer supervision will bill for the call. This would also occur for every call that had commercial matter between rings. And imagine this: you reach for your ringing phone after only one ring and you get a recording that says, "the person trying to reach you is still listening to an important announcement. Please hold until you are connected." John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !
johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine) (05/28/91)
In article <telecom11.391.4@eecs.nwu.edu> is written: > It seems someone has a patent to inject advertising messages > in the silent intervals between audible ringing signals. Worse yet, > the RBOCs seem to be all agog at this marvelous new thought about > getting revenue out of otherwise "dead air time!" I read about this several years ago when it first came out. It turns out that most of the technology is involved in injecting the advertisements at the caller's end, even though the ring is generated at the callee's end. The thought was that for a discount on the monthly service rate, a subscriber would consent to be subjected to ads. It seems to have occured to them that just sticking ads into rings heard by random callers would generate considerable ill will for the advertisers. For that matter, I don't know why companies with DID PBXes don't put their own ads into the ring sound now -- it wouldn't be technically hard. (Attention marketeers: Patent pending, don't try it. :-) I don't know why it's suddenly coming back now, except perhaps that the last of the old Bell System managers who thought of the phone company as a service are retiring, and the new ones have less shame. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl
"Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH" <allbery@ncoast.org> (06/04/91)
As quoted from <telecom11.406.5@eecs.nwu.edu> by johnl@iecc.cambridge. ma.us (John R. Levine): (about advertizing between rings) > I don't know why it's suddenly coming back now, except perhaps that > the last of the old Bell System managers who thought of the phone > company as a service are retiring, and the new ones have less shame. I dunno, but it's been a progressive disease around here. First they combined the time and weather services, then they added advertising, then they moved it to a 900 number and put a current-time-and-temperature announcement on the old number with an advertisement for the 900 number (and, of course, they try to bore you off the phone before telling you how much it co$t$). I expect ads in the ring sequence wil be next. :-( At least they haven't figured out how to charge me for punching in 162.550 on my HT. :-) Me: Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH: DC to LIGHT! [44.70.4.88] Internet: allbery@NCoast.ORG Delphi: ALLBERY uunet!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!ncoast!allbery [Moderator's Note: Hadn't you heard that NOAA was going to begin selling advertising space on that mobious loop tape they play over and over for an hour at a time? Its true! :) Of course it is. :) PAT]