Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Thu, 23 May 91 09:23 GMT From: "Donald E. Kimberlin" <0004133373@mcimail.com> Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: ONA Offers New Horizons for Telesleaze Message-ID: Organization: TELECOM Digest Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 391, Message 4 of 5 Lines: 63 OK, Telesleaze fans. Here's a really marvelous way that opening telecommunications to competition by getting into the FCC's mandated Open Network Architecture will brighten and benefit all our lives. (Why is it that the worst seems to come out first?) It seems someone has a patent to inject advertising messages in the silent intervals between audible ringing signals. Worse yet, the RBOCs seem to be all agog at this marvelous new thought about getting revenue out of otherwise "dead air time!" Communications attorney Vic Toth of Reston, VA has reported that a firm he describes as creators of a "home spun invention from a backyard in Kansas" called Phone Spots, Inc. has the LECs "real hot" over the idea as they meet in a group called the IILC discussing ways and means to provide "enhancements" to local exchange switching by creating access points in the LEC exchange. Toth's report indicates that telephone consumers might be compensated for enduring this form of telesleaze by receiving a discount on their local service bills or being given free local payphone calls. (Of course, so far only the "techies" are talking. The commercial office of the LECs has yet to be heard from. From there, I expect to hear some tripe that no, there's no kickback to sufferers; rather, PUC permission to inflict ringing-interval telesleaze as a "means to defer rate increases" -- for at least a month -- will be their rationale. It's Telco Hymn number 132 for those who want to look up the words in the LEC Hymnal.) Well, I guess we can anticipate a whole raft of free market opportunities to arise from this: *Advertising agencies are probably already hiring vice presidents to place spots and research audiences in this whole new market segment. *Writers of slogans as once used on Burma-Shave signs along U.S. highways may once again find employment (as they will have to fit advertising into four-second slots betweem two-second audible ringing signals). *Hardware manufacturers can forecast their market of 14,000 units to sell (this being the number of central offices in the U.S., as I recall). *Sellers of 900 rip-offs will have a far more economical and pervasive means to entice you into further telephone scams (Just think of listening to a 900 pitch EVERY time you place a call!) *LECs will derive yet a tertiary revenue source by tariffing a monthly charge to *stop* the telesleaze on your order (Do we have any *7n codes left for an "ad blocking" option?). ....and so on. The mind boggles, once the nausea subsides. I bet our readers at Rolling Meadows are already working on this marvelous enhancement to our lives and well-being. However, the STP Rule ("Sorry, That's Proprietary") probably applies, so they can't comment. I'll speak for them: Bleeeecchhh!