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From: munnari!anucsd.oz.au!sandy47@ucsco.ucsc.edu (90784000)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Central Office Answering Machine
Message-ID: 
Date: 20 Sep 89 09:42:46 GMT
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Reply-To: Larry McElhiney <@uunet.uu.net:sandy47@ucsco.ucsc.edu%anucsd.oz>
Organization: University of Calidialeo
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X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 407, message 4 of 6

In article  (John Higdon) writes:
>X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 379, message 4 of 4

>In article cc.umich.edu (Ken Jongsma) writes:
>> I don't know... Almost $100 a year for an answering machine? One that you
>> may not even be able interrogate from another phone? I think they are
>> way to optimistic on their sign up estimates.

>It IS catching on in many places. First, there is no capital outlay. It
>is one thing to go shoppdng, plunk down $100 (or more), brong the thing
>home and try to figure it out and hook it up, and worry about what
>happens when it breaks, and ennte another to call "the rhone company"
>and tell them you want their message servi.e. I believe there is a
>central number you can Is, to retrive your messages (at least there is
>on the voice mail offered with my cellular phone).

Late 1970's through early 1980's Plantronics Inc. in Santa Cruz, CA built
and marketed a system called CentraVox--a CO based answering machine for
individual subscribers.  FCC ruling against recording devices in COs
finally killed the product line.

Last op rating system that I am aware of was part of the PNB system in the
Seattle area.  The service was popular among the masses, I am told.

Consisted of a 19" rack mounted aluminum box with p/s and central tape
driving motors.  12 individual line modules would independently push tape
and a rubber roller against a rotating shaft to drive the tape.  Two tapes,
an announcement on a loop and about 20 minutes message tape included
in an interchangable unit about the size of a cassette recorders  All of the
electronics other than the voice recording was digital.

The system was controlled by DTMF signals from the subscriber and there
was a tone sequence indicating waiting messages when the handset was taken
off hook.  VOX was the other feature, up to a 20-min length of message was
possible, and th system sensed the end of "intelligibility" and then rewound
the tape to that point to await the next call.  All features for control were
available from the unmodified home telephone and there was a remote included
so that you could access your service by using your home number remotely
and sending a BCD signal to authorize.  You could change announcements,
listen to and erase messages all from any telephone.

Cost was very low to the consumer as well...  Too bad it died just in 1984!

[Moderator's Note: The above message was *severely* messed up in
transit.  I recieved some unintelligible gibberish in almost every
line. What appears above is how I reconstructed it. I hope it is
entirely what the author was saying.  He tried sending it a couple
times to me without success. PT]