GTE to Offer All-in-One Message Center

GTE will announce today that, starting this month, it will offer a Web-based central mailbox where users can retrieve messages from almost any device--voicemail, e-mail and faxes--in one location.

A subscriber can either call the mailbox to retrieve messages or read them on a password-protected Web site.

The service, which GTE developed with Telcordia Technologies (formerly Bellcore), will be available to its customers and on a wholesale basis to resellers.

“The problem today is the proliferation of messaging devices,” said Roger Smith, product manager of unified messaging for GTE. “People might have to call one number to get their work voicemail and another to get their home voicemail and then have to plug in their PC to get e-mail and call the office to get their faxes.”

GTE hopes to use the service to reduce churn--or subscribers switching carriers to get the best offer they can--a problem that plagues the telephone industry. The carrier expects to market the service early on to small-business and home office owners.

To use the service, a subscriber would forward the numbers for their various devices to a single number. Then, GTE would use its 17,000-mile Internet backbone to funnel these messages into subscribers’ mailboxes.

The service will be available in 50 markets in the U.S. by the end of September. It will debut in Boston and Dallas this month and in parts of California by fall. GTE expects the service to cost $15 to $20 a month. It will also sell the service to other phone companies, wireless firms and Internet service providers to resell to their subscribers.