North County : Experimental Telephone Line to Be Discontinued

Pacific Bell’s experimental telephone line that operated somewhat like the party line of yesteryear will be discontinued at the end of the month.

TalkLine, credited with bringing at least one Orange County couple together, is being discontinued as telephone company officials “look at ways to possibly refine it,” Pacific Bell spokesman Michael Runzler said.

“We know there is a market for it. Now we just have to find the best way to offer it to the public,” he said.

TalkLine, which links together as many as 11 callers on the same line, began last December as a six-month experimental project with five special numbers--three for teen-agers, one for adults and one for senior citizens. At the company’s request, the Public Utilities Commission extended TalkLine until Dec. 31 but trimmed the system to just one line each for teen-agers and adults. The system is limited to local calls from Garden Grove, Fullerton and Anaheim.

TalkLine is patterned after successful programs in U.S. cities such as New York and countries in South America and Europe, Runzler said.

TalkLine “affords people an opportunity to talk to more than one person at the same time, But in this case, you don’t always know who you are sharing a line with,” he said.

Based on a recent marketing survey in the Orange County area, Runzler said, “most people found (TalkLine) interesting and a great way to meet new people and make new friends.”

He said the survey showed that the majority of the callers were teen-agers, with a “significant” number of calls coming from those between the ages of 20 and 40. The biggest complaint, he said, was that there was no way to preclude people with push-button phones from playing electronic “songs” on the lines.

In addition, he said, there were reports of obscenity on the lines, “but it wasn’t the major problem reported.”

Runzler would not say how much revenue TalkLine generated to the company.

Review of the system and how it can be revised has already begun, he said, adding, “We could be offering similar projects in 1986, likely in the same area” of the county.

The two remaining lines will continue until Dec. 31. The service is 20 cents for the first minute and 12 cents for each additional minute until 11 p.m. From 11 p.m. to 8 a.m., the additional-minute rate drops to 8 cents.