0003493915@mcimail.com (Michael Dorrian) (06/14/90)
C&P Telephone, the offspring of those wonderful folks who brought you
Caller*ID, has continued its search for new revenue streams with
Answer Call, a CO-based answering machine feature.
I was able to discover the following based on my conversation with the
order taker on the 800 line:
No demo number was available (Yes, even though I suspected the answer
in advance, I had to ask the question anyway).
Particulars include:
o 30 or 45 Minute message Capacity
o Call Forward - No Answer (CF-NA), user-defined "N" ring cycles
or busy
o System or Private Greetings
o Up to 8 mailboxes available per line
o Special Dial Tone on off hook for message waiting
o Will answer if phone is in use. If phone is equipped with Call
Waiting, using Tone Block will route additional incoming
calls to Answer Call. Additional Calls will hear a busy signal.
o Time/Date stamp on messages
o Skip, replay, fast forward, erase or save messages
Prices:
o $10.80 connection fee, waived until 7/28
o Message unit (if applicable) to forward or retrieve calls
o Pricing as follows:
- Call Forwarding, No Answer/Busy $2.00 (Base)
- First Mailbox with 30 minute capacity $3.00 (Base)
- Additional 15 minutes capacity (max?) $1.00 (Option)
- Seven Additional mailboxes/passwords $2.00 (Option)
C&P Advert:
"Advanced phone company computers can now give your 12-button
touch-tone equipped telephone full-featured answering capability for
as little as $5 a month. Like an answering machine - _but better_!"
I believe "advanced phone company computers" to be Octel Aspen, but
this is not confirmed.
Service is only available for residential users and is accessed by
dialing home telephone number,"*" and password. Default password is
the last four digits of phone number, changeable to private 4 to 10
digit password. Didn't ask if password or ring settings could be set
remotely, which would mean that Touch-Tone on home phone is really
required. (or a pocket beeper).
This is the first time I've seen CF-NA made available outside of
Centrex. I'd much rather have it on my business line than the usual
call forwarding(CF), both for its capability and price ($2 vs. $4).
Instead of activating CF when I was going to leave the office, I'd
just leave CF-NA on all the time.
Unfortunately it's not available ('coming soon', *they* said). And
probably only with C&P Answer Call.
CF is also available from C&P for residential customers , either
separately ($3.50/mo.) or with some combination of 3-way calling,
speed dialing and call waiting under Custom Calling Service (resulting
in an average cost as low as $2.42/mo.) .
Is it just me or does this sound like subsidization/bundling?
CF-NA is absolutely required to make Answer Call work. I can see
justification of a lower price for multiple custom calling options
since it is software selectable at the CO switch, but this flavor of
Call Forwarding is different from the version under Custom Calling.
When CF is activated, the talk path is never completed to the called
party, although their phone itself will go through several ring cycles
(If answered by the called party they receive dial tone). The calling
party, meanwhile, is forwarded to the number specified by the called
party.
On the other hand CF-NA actually allows talk path completion to the
dialed party, and if the call is unanswered after a pre-selected
number of rings, returns to the CO where it is then forwarded in the
same manner as CF.
While the relative value of CF vs. CF-NA for the end user depends on
the application, it would seem more expensive to provide CF-NA than
CF.
And, of course, relative value shouldn't enter into the picture, since
utility pricing is based on cost recovery, not on what the market will
bear. :-)
The local phone company's provisioning of voice mail has tie ins with
other storylines in the Digest, such as sanctity/responsibility of
message content and the ability of this service to provide a
"community" voice bulletin board.
Of course the very viability of the service would be doubt if all
payphones are reverted to dial pulse.
Michael Dorrian The RTP Group, Mid-Atlantic Arlington, VA
703-243-6000 MCI Mail 349-3915
[Moderator's Note: Call Forwarding on No Answer/Busy is available
here, but only to cellular customers. Landline users can't have it. PT]