Kenneth_R_Jongsma@cup.portal.com (05/06/89)
Just received an insert in this month's bill from Michigan Bell (Ameritech). It seems that they are about to implement a form of the automated operator services some of the COCOTs have been using for collect and third party billing. According to the flyer, if you are making a 0+ call withing the LATA and do not enter a credit card number after the "bong", you may get connected to a computer asking you to touch a number corresponding to your billing request (collect or third party). You will then be asked to record your name. The called or billed number will then be called, a computer generated message will be played with your name inserted appropriately, and the receiver asked to touch a number corresponding to whether or not they accept charges. I tried it this evening a got a real operator, so I can't give any more details right now or comment on the possibility of spoofing the system. Ken@cup.portal.com
dts@cloud9.stratus.com (Daniel Senie) (05/16/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0158m02@vector.dallas.tx.us>, Kenneth_R_Jongsma@cup. portal.com writes: > Just received an insert in this month's bill from Michigan Bell > (Ameritech). It seems that they are about to implement a form > of the automated operator services some of the COCOTs have > been using for collect and third party billing. According to > the flyer, if you are making a 0+ call withing the LATA and > do not enter a credit card number after the "bong", you may > get connected to a computer asking you to touch a number > corresponding to your billing request (collect or third > party). You will then be asked to record your name. The called > or billed number will then be called, a computer generated message > will be played with your name inserted appropriately, and the > receiver asked to touch a number corresponding to whether or > not they accept charges. What do they plan to do if the billed number does not have touch-tone? Some of us are still in the dark ages and connected to step offices... Daniel Senie UUCP: harvard!ulowell!cloud9!dts Stratus Computer, Inc. ARPA: anvil!cloud9!dts@harvard.harvard.edu 55 Fairbanks Blvd. CSRV: 74176,1347 Marlboro, MA 01752 TEL.: 508 - 460 - 2686 [Moderator's Note: We have something like this now in Chicago. You dial zero plus the ten digit number to make a call on your card, even if the call is in Chicago. After dialing those eleven digits, a gong rings, and a condescending recorded voice tells us, "Enter your calling card number, followed by a pound (#), or dial zero for an operator now!" If you do neither, then a live operator cuts in after about twenty seconds to handle the call manually. Phones known to be rotary dial are automatically routed to the operator following the gong signal. PT]
tel@cbnewsh.att.com (thomas.e.lowe) (05/19/89)
|> Just received an insert in this month's bill from Michigan Bell |> (Ameritech). It seems that they are about to implement a form |> of the automated operator services some of the COCOTs have |> been using for collect and third party billing. According to |> the flyer, if you are making a 0+ call withing the LATA and |> do not enter a credit card number after the "bong", you may |> get connected to a computer asking you to touch a number |> corresponding to your billing request (collect or third |> party). You will then be asked to record your name. The called |> or billed number will then be called, a computer generated message |> will be played with your name inserted appropriately, and the |> receiver asked to touch a number corresponding to whether or |> not they accept charges. |What do they plan to do if the billed number does not have touch-tone? |Some of us are still in the dark ages and connected to step offices... |[Moderator's Note: We have something like this now in Chicago. You |dial zero plus the ten digit number to make a call on your card, even if |the call is in Chicago. After dialing those eleven digits, a gong rings, |and a condescending recorded voice tells us, "Enter your calling card |number, followed by a pound (#), or dial zero for an operator now!" |If you do neither, then a live operator cuts in after about twenty |seconds to handle the call manually. Phones known to be rotary dial are |automatically routed to the operator following the gong signal. PT] I think you missed the point. The call is going to be delivered by automated equipment asking the CALLED party to enter a digit to accept the charges. What if the CALLED party has no touchtone phone? I suppose it could time out after not getting a digit after 5 seconds but that sounds like some invonvient delays. I have also heard of VERY reliable speech recognition that is now available that recognizes a VERY limited vocabulary (yes, no, 0 1 ... 8 9). Something like 95+% reliable. If they implement that, this would be an acceptable way of doing collect and third person billing. -- Tom Lowe tel@hound.ATT.COM or att!hound!tel 201-949-0428 AT&T Bell Laboratories, Room 2E-637A Crawfords Corner Road, Holmdel, NJ 07733 (R) UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T (keep them lawyers happy!!)
paul@nsacray.uucp (05/24/89)
The problem with automated operators, at least the ones I've played around with is that after the question of whether or not they will accept the call is asked of the called party, the calling party can generate the DTMF (or say "Yes" for voice recognition). Simply cutting off the calling party from the call is also not a good idea, as sometimes the calling party is needed to generate additional info or at least speak to be recognized. Also, the voice recognition would have to deal with foreign languages in (e.g.) heavily Spanish speaking areas. Anyway, this technology has a long ways to go. -------- Paul Guthrie chinet!nsacray!paul Zippy says: OKAY!! Turn on the sound ONLY for TRYNEL CARPETING, FULLY-EQUIPPED R.V.'S and FLOATATION SYSTEMS!!
nao@cs.utexas.edu (Neil Ostroff) (05/26/89)
Whether automated operators work 100% is not the issue for it is easily
solved. When the voice/tone recognition system detects an invalid (or no)
response it simply times out and repeats one or more times. It could say
something like, "I'm sorry but I did not understand your answer, I have a
collect call from [caller's name], will you accept the call. Please answer
'yes' or 'no' now." After two or more failures to get a valid answer, the call
would be routed to a human operator. In a very short time, many people would
get used to this treatment and some may even welcome not having to deal with a
human when making an operator-assisted call. For the few percent where the
automated system doesn't work, those calls would be routed to human operators.
Yes, you won't be able to eliminate the need for all operators, maybe only
80%. That represents a HUGE savings. In my humble opinion, there are many
reasons automated operators are not more popular.
1. Unions (although being an operator is probably not very
interesting, it pays and has benefits).
2. Many people will resent having to deal with a machine (not
the ones who use automated tellers).
3. Regulators may need to approve the use of automated operators.
4. It's an expensive technology.
5. Phone companies want the public to know people are behind
their network, not impersonal computers.
6. Lack of patience - it takes time to plan, engineer and
install automated operators.
Neil Ostroff
Bell Communications Research | UUCP: bcr!maestro!nao
100 Schultz Dr. NVC-5J443 | ARPA: nao@maestro.bellcore.com
Red Bank, NJ 07701 | PHONE: (201) 758-5741