PacBell Hopes to Set New Tone in Phone Messaging
The phone company wants to put the household answering machine on the endangered species list. But consumers may not go along with the plan that quickly.
Pacific Bell’s weapon is its new residential voice mail system to be available this month throughout most of Southern California. Modeled after systems long used in the workplace, the new Message Center service not only records incoming messages, but will allow customers to send multiple calls automatically. The system can even take messages while the phone is in use, and offers multiple voice “mailboxes” for a single phone number to accommodate roommates or families with teen-agers.
The service will be offered in the 213, 714, 818 and 805 area codes. It has been available in Northern California since late last year and is available in selected areas throughout the nation.
The service is just one of an increasing number of services telephone companies nationwide are developing to give residential customers the same features they have used for years at the office. These new services also provide a substantial source of new revenue to the phone companies to help offset the impact of increasing competition in their traditional local service operations.
Despite the wide range of options included in Message Center, analysts still question whether it is too expensive to persuade many customers to scrap the answering machines they’ve already paid for. The basic service will cost $4.95 monthly, plus a $7 one-time installation charge. Group messaging will cost 20 cents per call per recipient, and multiple household voice mailboxes will be $2.50 each.
“At these prices, answering machines still have the price advantage,” said Steve Sazagari, a telecommunications analyst with Dataquest, a Silicon Valley research firm. “For one year’s worth of Message Center service you could buy a decent answering machine.”
Sazagari said he does not expect a large number of residential customers to subscribe to the service until its price drops, perhaps to as low as $2 or $3 per month.
However, James La Follette, manager of the service for Pacific Bell, said it has already proven popular in Northern California. He said surveys have shown that while about 66% of Message Center subscribers own answering machines, most have stopped using them. He declined to offer subscription figures.
Computers supporting Message Center operations in Northern California have crashed twice since the program was initiated there, erasing many messages. But Pacific Bell said the bugs in the system are being worked out.
