Consuming Interest
Answering The Telephone
By LESLIE ADRIAN
THE ballyhoo about Britain's trunk dialling system, promised within the next few years on a national telephone network and in a country many times smaller than most of the States of the Union, looks a bit sick along- side DDD—the direct distance dialling system now in use in the United States. By the end of last year over six million telephones were linked on the DDD system in the US, and by 1965 it is expected that all subscribers in every State on every telephone company's network will be in the system. In Germany all cities and towns of any size are now on a direct dialling system, with the exception of Berlin for outward calls. In fact, it would seem that Germany, and in many respects Austria, has the most efficient and versa- tile telephone service in the world.
Apart from such typically Viennese refinements as being able to dial for a sustained middle C, or for a child's bedtime story, there is also an in- valuable answering service compared to which the GPO has virtually nothing to offer. The Fern- spreehauftragsdienst, or telephone commission service, serves subscribers in two ways. Switch One, if a subscriber is ill, prevents the telephone from ringing and takes messages which can be collected later. This is a service which also protects authors and artists during periods of concentrated work. Switch Two is more.elabdrate. The telephone rings in the home or one-man-business office, and, if the subscriber cannot reach the instrument in time, the operator intervenes and takes the call. The same is done if the subscriber is out or away for the day. It is cheaper if the telephone is switched for a period, like a month, rather than merely day after day for a similar period.
In Britain, though you may not know it, there is the 'temporary transfer and call service,' oper- ated by the GPO. This service allows you for a charge of 15s. a month, 5s. a week or 9d. a day additidnal, to have incoming calls transferred to a chosen number in your 'single unit charge area' (i.e., the area within which a call costs 3d.). Unlike the German answering service the GPO will not handle the calls for you. Short-term arrange- ments may be made through your exchange supervisor, more permanent transfers should be negotiated with the local telephone manager, but at least twenty-four hours' notice has to be given if your phone is on an automatic exchange. On a manual exchange as little as two hours' notice is necessary, even if you intend to be away for some weeks on holiday.
As far as providing an answering service goes, this is all that the Post, Office does at present, and as far a§ I know it is not given much publicity. The inquiry services, which are being more widely advertised now, for time, weather, tourist informa- tion in three languages, etc., are becoming better known, but are still nothing to compare with Ger- many's cinema and theatre programmes, road con- ditions, menus and recipes, doctors' and chemists' duty rota and other things less important.
However, in this busy business-minded world what is needed so often is some form of message- taking or call-answering service, and in the absence of an official one at our disposal I set out to discover what, if anything, private enterprise had provided. In London I found two active ser- vices, Answering Ltd. ,(Welbeck 6655), and Tele- phone Answering Services Ltd. (Gerrard 0502).
Answering Ltd. offers four services. The 'A' service, which costs 13+ guineas a quarter for a twenty-four-hour service (plus a quarterly rent of approximately £3 a line, and an installation charge of £2), supplies a private line extension to the Answering switchboard where calls are handled by a specially trained operator who can take orders, business inquiries, etc. The 'B' or intercep- tion service is more like the German official ser- vice. For a fee of 6 guineas a quarter round-the- clock (5 guineas for office hours) calls transferred by the local exchange will be taken by the Answer- ing switchboard. In this case there is also a Post Office transfer charge of £2 a quarter. Service 'C' provides you with an accommodation telephone number; Service 'D' supplies an out-of-town business or professional man with a telephone of his own at the Answering office.
Telephone Answering Services really, only pro- vides a version of Answering's 'B' service. They charge 19s. 6d. a week for a twenty-four-hour, seven-day-week service, or 17s. 6d. a week for a ten-hour service from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday to Saturday inclusive. They set a maximum num- ber of messages to the service of 120 on the twenty-four-hdur system, above which calls cost 4d., and of 100 messages on the ten-hour system, with the same excess charge. All subscribers are charged a connection fee of' £1 by the, GPO and a line rental. In addition TAS run a service called Aircall, by means of which your car can be linked
by radio telephone for a fitting charge (there is no capital outlay) and a monthly rental. Inquiries for this service are taken at Regent 2552.
These services are available only in London, but there is no geographical limitation on the use of an Ansafone machine. This gadget, which came on the market only recently, is the only automatic device for answering which has been approved by the GPO. The Pye system, of which I heard recently, has not yet been sanctioned. The Ansafone, made by Southern Instruments, is a recording machine which can be fitted to your telephone. When the bell rings the instrument waits ten to fifteen seconds for you to answer..If you do not, it connects itself to the exchange and makes a pre-recorded announcement such as Vhipstead 003, Mr. Smith's Ansafone. I will record your name and any message you care to leave. Please speak clearly. Speak now.' On the word 'now' the recording begins. As soon as there is a silence of at least eight seconds the machine stops recording and announces that it is closing down. It can store up to half an hour of recordings, and will only answer when at least three clear minutes of recording time remain. Messages can be played back as if from a tape recorder. Rentals are from 22s. 6d. a week upwards, so that the cost compares quite well with the 'live' services. Southern Instruments (Communications) address is 49 St. James's Street, SW1 (Grosvenor 5064).
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