blake@pro-party.cts.com (Blake Farenthold) (03/03/90)
richr@etl.army.mil (Richard Rosenthal) wrote the digest about 6 digit PPV (pay per view) ordering from his cable & phone company and asked, >Question: What is the story with 6 digit phone numbers? How do >they work? I would like to know more. >I guess that they work something like the way equal access to long >distance works. I know that I dial 102-221 (usually written 10-222-1) >to dial direct with MCI. Any relation here? I'm almost certain that's how the system works. It's interesting on two points.. first.. I wouldn't think the phone company would WANT to do this for your cable company. I attended a CLE (continuing legal education) seminar at last years NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) convention in Las Vegas and one of the hot topics was cable company phone company competition (regulatory framework primarily) but with a broadband coax coming into your home, technologically the cable company could start providing phone/data service delivery/transmission. The cable companies on the other hand are scared to death that the phone companies will win approval to start bring in (and/or taking out) video services. If you get a fiber optic phone cable to your house it has the capacity to carry lotsa television stations. Clearly the phone company has the money to destroy most "mom and pop" cable companies. Personally, I'd probably rather get my cable company from a baby Bell. At least the phones work when it rains. The cable however.... The other issue is weather or not a 10xxx number was the only/easiest way to get ANI information to your cable company. My Cable company stores my records by phone number so with ANI all I'd have to do is dial 10xxx-0-channel and presto I'd have the PPV show on and the cable company would know which converter to address to activate the program and who to bill. The use of ANI also prevents my calling up and ordering every pay per view event offered for an unsuspecting "friend". UUCP: ...!crash!pnet01!pro-party!blake ARPA: crash!pnet01!pro-party!blake@nosc.mil INET: blake@pro-party.cts.com Blake Farenthold | Voice: 800/880-1890 | MCI: BFARENTHOLD 1200 MBank North | Fax: 512/889-8686 | CIS: 70070,521 Corpus Christi, TX 78471 | BBS: 512/882-1899 | GEnie: BLAKE
johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us (John R. Levine) (03/04/90)
In article <4681@accuvax.nwu.edu> you write: >The other issue is weather or not a 10xxx number was the only/easiest >way to get ANI information to your cable company. ... AT&T did an experiment with an 800 number for PPV. You call the 800 number, then AT&T passes the ANI info to the cable company which does whatever it has to do, a recorded voice confirms that the movie is ordered and it hangs up, all in a few seconds. It was written up in the AT&T Technical Journal (the new name for the tarted up BSTJ) about a year ago. I'd think that a FG B 950-1XXX number would be cheaper than 10XXX, but if there were more than one movie to order it would be hard to make it work for subscribers with click phones, since it won't automatically pass extra digits. Regards, John Levine, johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|lotus}!esegue!johnl