johnl@think.UUCP (09/16/87)
BellSouth's operating companies South Central Bell and Southern Bell are introducing a new service called RingMaster. It assigns two or three numbers to the same phone line, and gives the different numbers different rings. That way if you run a business in your home you can know whether to answer "Hello" or "Thank You For Calling Schrod Bait Systems" without having to install and pay for two lines. You could also use it for a minor variety of toll evasion; when you leave the office, call the second number, let it ring four times, and hang up, so your housemate hears the ring and knows you're on the way without answering the phone and completing the call. Sounds like a clever way to get some revenue from CO equipment that has to be present anyway to support the dwindling number of party lines. -- John R. Levine, Cambridge MA, +1 617 492 3869 { ihnp4 | decvax | cbosgd | harvard | yale }!ima!johnl, Levine@YALE.something The Iran-Contra affair: None of this would have happened if Ronald Reagan were still alive. --- John R. Levine, Cambridge MA, +1 617 492 3869 { ihnp4 | decvax | cbosgd | harvard | yale }!ima!johnl, Levine@YALE.something The Iran-Contra affair: None of this would have happened if Ronald Reagan were still alive.
taras@utgpu.UUCP (10/04/87)
In article <8709161804.AA00673@ima.ISC.COM> think!ima!johnl@EDDIE.MIT.EDU (John R. Levine) writes:
# Sounds like a clever way to get some revenue from CO equipment that has to be
# present anyway to support the dwindling number of party lines.
I dunno. All the new equipment is electronic and does not require any
extra hardware to support RingMaster service. Party line service was
supported on step by step type exchanges, amoung others, and I am sure
that some poor old telco engineer would not want to install that equipment
on their new modern exchanges. Besides that old equipment is usually more
valuable as scrap.
--
Taras Pryjma
uucp: taras@gpu.utcs
bitnet: tpryjma@utoronto
Bell: +1 (416) 536-2821
Fear is never boring. hmmm. hmmmm.
YEEEEEOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Damn those trap doors! Yup. Fear is never boring.