CAPEK%YKTVMT.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu (Peter G. Capek) (10/23/90)
The {Wall Stree Journal} of 22 October has a short article headed
"Directory Assistance Without Dialing 411". It describes a product
offered by PhoneDisc USA Corp, of Warwick, NY, which consists of two
CD-ROMs which list 90 million "residential listings" for $1850;
quarterly updates are $400 per year (I presume it is the first set of
disks which costs $1850). "By contrast, a collection of all the
nation's phone books costs about $60,000 and weighs more than 10,000
pounds." The article does not explicitly state whether PhoneDisc has
addresses with its listings, and since a CD-Rom is about 560 MB, with
9E9 listings, there's not a lot of room left after the name and the
number.
Now, here's the bad part: the source for this data is NOT the phone
companies, but the databases of direct-marketing companies. This
means the data may be as much as 15 months out of date (no explanation
offered of where that came from). Also, PhoneDisc does NOT
(presently) allow reverse searching (number -> subscriber name).
Apparently (someone from Purdue asked about this the other day) NyNex
and US West are the only local operating companies that publish their
listings on CD-ROM. The October 15 Datamation indicates that the
charge for four workstations accessing the US West database for
fourteen states with monthly updates is $25K/year. Also, Southwestern
Bell is the only company so far that has signed up for AT&T's on-line
service.BRUCE@ccavax.camb.com (Barton F. Bruce) (10/27/90)
In article <13961@accuvax.nwu.edu>, CAPEK%YKTVMT.BITNET (Peter G. Capek) writes: > The {Wall Stree Journal} of 22 October has a short article headed > "Directory Assistance Without Dialing 411". It describes a product > offered by PhoneDisc USA Corp, of Warwick, NY, which consists of two > CD-ROMs which list 90 million "residential listings" for $1850; I just saw an ad for "Speed Dial" CDROM National Business Telephone Directory. It claims numbers for 9.2 million businesses. Search by yellow page heading or name. Print selected listings. Dial a number. post a 'sticky-note' on any listing (I assume using your hard disk, obviously can't do it on CDROM). Says it has a 30 day money back guarantee (return for any reason). The interesting thing is that unlike any others I have seen so far this one might be labeled affordable. single user: $249 intro offer $199. 8 user lan $1399 " " $999. 9-100 user lan $1999 " " $1499. Though nothing else is mentioned about it, there is also a box to check for info on a national consumer directory, too. 1.800.45.SPEED They are: Dataware Technologies Inc 222 Third Avenue, Suite 3300 Cambridge, MA 02142-9815 ***no connection what-so-ever***
tjo@its.bt.co.uk (Tim Oldham) (10/30/90)
In the UK, (BT) charges for directory inquires are to be brought in next year. (Mercury, the only other carrier, has always charged, I believe.) This has lead to BT offering two alternative services for inquiries; an dial-up on-line inquiries database, via modem (although I'm not sure what speeds are to be offered; V.32 at best, I imagine) and a CD-ROM + PC software solution. With the former, you pay only for the call into the database, which is at local rates. With the latter, I believe the charge will be c. 2200 pounds sterling per annum, which gives you quarterly releases of the entire UK phone book on CD-ROM and suitable software for a PC. Data is stored in encrypted form on the CD; reverse inquiries are "impossible". (Read: not worthwhile in sensible compute time). The only thing that puzzles me is exactly how you manage the logistics of having a CD-ROM/PC solution. What do people see as a sensible way of working? Switchboard having the PC and doing inquiries for you? Surely a dedicated own-company inquiry service is OTT? And the trouble with the dial-up solution is surely the sheer amount of time needed to do a simple inquiry. Other solutions? Of course, a networked inquiries server would be fine by me, but I'm not at all sure that that's actually possible with the s/w being offered. Presumably it wouldn't make BT enough money to recoup the development costs. Disclaimer: while I work for BT, I have no connection with directory inquiries or even the phone system in general. These are my opinions and questions, not BT's. Tim Oldham, BT Applied Systems. tjo@its.bt.co.uk or ...uunet!ukc!its!tjo
johns@scroff.uk.sun.com (John Slater) (11/07/90)
In article <14171@accuvax.nwu.edu>, tjo@its.bt.co.uk (Tim Oldham) writes: |> |> In the UK, (BT) charges for directory inquires are to be brought in |> next year. (Mercury, the only other carrier, has always charged, I |> believe.) In fact Mercury used to be free too. They started charging about two years ago. But I digress ... |> This has lead to BT offering two alternative services for |> inquiries; an dial-up on-line inquiries database, via modem (although |> I'm not sure what speeds are to be offered; V.32 at best, I imagine) |> and a CD-ROM + PC software solution. The dial-in service is V.23 (blecch!). This is the brain-damaged 1200/75 baud system used by Prestel (aka Viewdata, but that was a long time ago). Sad but true. BT have said they will consider faster modems if the demand is there. My theory is that BT is recycling its old Prestel modems, now that that service is in decline. BTW, you can also get through to Phonebase (as it is called) via Prestel on page 192. Somehow I think BT is more interested in making money on voice enquiries (at 43 pence per call) than it is in providing a sensible, low-cost data link. The cheapest solution is to call directory enquiries from a payphone - calls will still be free from these. John Slater Sun Microsystems UK, Gatwick Office