Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!wuarchive!swbatl!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Busy Signals: Are 900 Numbers a Waste of Money? Message-ID: Date: 23 Aug 89 06:05:56 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Lines: 125 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 319, message 1 of 4 [Condensed from an article in the Chicago Tribune, August 22, 1989] Consider just a few of the lines operating now -- Freddy Pumpkin 900-909-1234 Slime Line 900-909-2233 Paula Abdul 900-909-1800 The Hulk 900-909-5855 Club Teen 900-909-0100 World Weather 900-321-1212 Samantha Fox 900-909-FOXX NBC Soap Line 900-650-4622 Romantic Confessions 900-909-4500 Ken Patera 900-646-SLAM Stock Market Forecast 900-234-1100 Womens Secrets 900-909-1133 Did you ever wonder who would be on the other end if you dialed one of those phone numbers so luridly advertised on cable TV? But have you been too shy or put off by the price -- often $2 for the first minute and 45 cents per minute thereafter to call? On 900-909-1133 "Women's Secret Confessions" you get a scratchy recording of several women who earlier consented to have their phone calls taped for later listening by strangers. These women sound more like Roseanne Barr than Joan Collins. One says, "My confession is for the last six years I've been in love with my husband's brother. I have been married for seven years. Both marriages involve two children.....I know he cares for me and I care for him. But by us both being married, and both of them being brothers....I don't know what to do. I have feelings for both of them. Could someone help me? Please call in and let me know." Then there is 900-909-4500, known as "True Romantic Confessions". Another tape, another voice, this time it is Joe Sixpack speaking: "Hello, my name is Jerry and I play for a highly competitive softball team in central Illinois. And I'm having a hard time finding young ladies and [sic] everything that like softball and everything [sic] and the outdoors. And I am into snowmobiling because I have two of them. And I am into boating because I have one. And its really hard because I'm from a small community and everything and its just hard to find anybody. So could anybody please call?" "The Samantha Fox Line" at 900-909-FOXX features the pop singer in her streetwise Cockney. The tape is already halfway through but she assures us, "....if you've not 'eard all the message, stay on the line, it will repeat from the beginning.... " All these tapes are mobius loops which go 'round and 'round repeatedly, so you can listen as long as desired, and not coincidentally run up your phone bill even more in the process. "....'ere I am now. Jive [Records] signed me up about three years ago and my first big 'it single was 'Touch Me'. It was number three in America and number one in 17 other European countries," she says, proving that if she is anything at all, she is ignorant of geography. And this is where dialing 900 can land you. If there were a box office, you'd ask for your money back. But it is around such messages that a fast- growing, complex and controversial segment in the phone industry has sprung up. It did not exist until 1980, when AT&T invented it to allow NBC News to poll viewers on who won the Reagan-Carter presidential debate. They picked the Californian, and both a new presidency and a new phone concept were launched. According to Bruce Kushnick, a New York consultant who tracks 900 numbers, telcos and the people who provide the programming will rake in about $500 million this year. By 1992, he estimates the take will be more than $2 billion per year. 900 numbers have something of a seamy reputation in the public's mind. There are a large number of 'adult programming' numbers, featuring both taped messages appealing to every sexual fantasy imaginable, as well as live, interactive 'chat' lines, where persons of similar pursuasion can meet and exchange phone numbers for late night direct contact purposes. The sexually- oriented 'chats' seem to mostly be located on the 999 exchange, at rates that typically begin at $1.95 - $2.95 for the first minute, and about a dollar a minute thereafter. Many of these services offer a guarenteed connection by proclaiming, "...try our free number first! 312-606-xxxx. If the line is busy, we guarentee someone is waiting when you dial 900-999-xxxx." In other words, someone gets a free connection in exchange for functioning like a shill to bring others to the pay-to-play conference line. There are many, many users of 900 numbers. Last year, Fox TV used a 900 poll to allow viewers to choose the ending of a special "Married....With Children" episode. In a "Saturday Night Live" skit, Eddie Murphy had viewers voice their opinion over whether to execute Larry the Lobster by throwing him in a pot of boiling water or let him live. Calls from around the country via the 900 lines voted for mercy, and the financial take for both AT&T and the Saturday Night Live people was quite substantial. Steve Cowthon of Cable News Network points out that hardly a night goes by when CNN doesn't run one of its non-scientific polls on subjects such as the hostages in Iran or what to do with General Noriega. MTV first used 900 service during Bruce Srpingsteen weekend in 1987, and they received 886,000 calls in two days. Flushed with that kind of success, MTV ran a contest in March, 1989 to give away Bon Jovi's childhood home in Sayerville, NY. Within *15 minutes*, 300,000 calls had been received. Within *35 minutes* the tally was above 600,000 calls. Many 900 lines are just blatant advertising designed to sell something and get the caller to pay for listening to the advertisement. For instance, a 1969 nostalgia line has Wolfman Jack urging callers to "check out the 1969 video at your local video store..." Many of these messages are deliberatly designed to attract children, and encourage them to call without their parent's knowledge or consent. Some phone companies, including Illinois Bell, have dropped the chat lines they were running because of trouble which ensued when children and others gave out their home address or phone number to the stranger on the other end. Most of the telcos have discontinued offering billing service to the sexually oriented lines, effectively deep-sixing many of them; however those services have begun to recover, and now frequently use 800 service; requiring the caller to punch in his credit card number at the start of the call, and wait a couple seconds for verification before being connected to the conversations and/or taped message in progress. Most telcos now also offer blocking and will implement it free of charge on request. They will also write off (and charge back to the vendor) any charges on the phone bill the *first time* someone complains that they did not know what they were reaching, or the cost involved. One prominent 900 service provider, headquartered in the Chicago area is Telesphere International. According to Denny Houlihan, manager of 900 services for the company, they don't carry lines that naturally appeal to children. He said they avoid them due to the difficulty in collecting from parents who found out after the fact what their (unsupervised) children had been doing in their spare time. [Condensed from an article in the Chicago Tribune, Tuesday, August 22, 1988 by John Barrat.]