53 lines
2.4 KiB
Plaintext
53 lines
2.4 KiB
Plaintext
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Illinois Bell Information Bulletin
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Friday, January 23
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Expanded, repriced '976' announcements debut in March
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The Illinois Commerce Commission has approved Illinois Bell's request to
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begin a one-year trial to expand and reprice the company's "976" public
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announcement system, now called 976 TELEPROGRAMS service.
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Beginning March 2, six new one-minute telephone messages each by different
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announcement producers will be introduced -- expanding the total number of
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announcements to 24.
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At the same time, a new pricing plan for the system will allow all of the
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producers, including the producer of the current series of announcements, to
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set prices for their programs between 20 and 50 cents. The new pricing struc-
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ture replaces message unit billing which was based on the distance and the
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duration of the call.
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"A successful trial and regulatory approval could set off a wave of
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improved announcement features that will revolutionize the 976 TELEPROGRAMS
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service into the 1990s," said Judy Mandolini, Illinois Bell's public announce-
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ment service product manager.
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"In the future, the expansion could allow businesses to announce sales or
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school officials to advise parents of school closings," she said.
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In years to come, other new features might include:
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o As many as 1,000 dial-up messages that could be produced by up to 250
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information providers.
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o Announcements as long as 30 minutes, which would reshape the type of
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informational and entertainment programming that information providers
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produce.
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o Producers targeting their announcements to audiences in specific
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geographical areas.
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The trial's purpose is test network features that ultimately will give
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thousands of callers simultaneous access to hundreds of new messages.
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Mandolini said Illinois Bell will begin a customer information campaign next
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month to announce the changes. Customers will be sent letters and will have
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their calls to the public announcements appear as shown charges on their
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bills.
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Additionally, two toll-free 976 TELEPROGRAMS information lines, updated
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monthly, will be set up to describe the available announcements, their prices
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and the addresses and telephone numbers of the announcements' producers.
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