Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!bellcore!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: New Enhancements From the BOC's Message-ID: Date: 29 May 89 16:04:14 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Lines: 53 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 178, message 2 of 4 Three of the Bell Operating Companies have started new innovative services in recent weeks. Here is a summary of each -- MICHIGAN BELL now allows customers in several suburban Detroit communities to order Touch-Tone service and Custom Calling features on a trial basis using an automated dial-up system that turns on the services within minutes. The service is available 24 hours per day. The system provides ordered services within 15 minutes, according to the telco, compared with the previous waiting period of up to 48 hours. The service is accessed by dialing an 800 number, and features recorded information and prompts for users of tone-dial phones. The trial is scheduled to continue until the end of the year. About 200,000 customers are in the test area. BELL OF PENNSYLVANIA now is offering something called 'I.Q. Services', which is a combination of Custom Calling and CLASS services into a single personal call-management system. I.Q. enables subscribers in the Philadelphia area to redial busy/no answer numbers automatically, block unwanted incoming calls, assign a special ring to selected numbers, forward only on selected calls, and initiate a trace. Custom calling services of course include call-waiting, three-way calling, call forwarding and speed calling. CLASS call-management services include return call, priority call, repeat call, call block, select forward, and call trace. The CLASS offerings *do not* include caller identification service at the present time, as this feature is subject to Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission review at the present time. SOUTHWESTERN BELL has begun a telemetry trial that allows utilities to read home utility meters over a single telephone line. The test is being conducted at about fifty homes in Kansas City, MO. Water and gas meters at each site are equipped with meter encoder/digitizers that link to a telemetry interface unit at each home. Readings collected at each site are sent over the telephone line to meter reading access circuits at a Southwestern Bell central office, which relays the readings to computers at the gas and water company offices. The system delivers a reading in about ten seconds, and automatically disengages if the subscriber is using the phone. Southwestern Bell also announced they have signed a contract with MCI to provide billing and collection services for MCI's long distance service, beginning in the fourth quarter, 1989. Southwestern Bell subscribers in that company's five-state region who opt to use MCI will begin seeing long distance charges from that company on their October, 1989 phone bills. Patrick Townson