Iconic Retro telephones from the 1960’s and 1970’s such as the British TRIMphone “Tone Ringer Illuminated Model” have started to make a comeback. You can now buy modern replica versions of these telephones, updated with all the new facilities such as last number redial and the # and * keys.

Classic British Trimphone Telephone replica

Several countries have either banned VoIP or talked about banning VoIP over the last few years. VoIP is cheaper than other forms of telephony and some counties are looking at this as a negative for a variety of reasons. VoIP Providers can often be based anywhere in the world, so as opposed to telephone providers, the profits may leave the country. There are several reasons why VoIP has been banned in certain territories.

Part of the reason is competition. Some claim it is unfair on local telecommunications companies as VoIP providers can offer a cheaper service. This brings up the debate of a free market. Should it be completely free and open to everyone or should steps be made to support local business? If local business cannot complete should they just be allowed to go out of business? The increasing popularity of VoIP will obviously be bad for traditional telecommunications companies. Some have accused countries, such as Russia, of hiding behind the reason of unfair competition, with security being the actual reason.

Many telecommunications networks around the world are state controlled. Therefore VoIP can literally threaten governments’ income. This is obviously an incentive for countries to stop VoIP usage.

Whether or not telecoms companies are private or run by the state, it can still be bad for the economy. If overseas VoIP providers are taking the majority of the business, then certain parts of the national economy could suffer. This can lead to the loss of jobs meaning rising unemployment.

Some countries are concerned about security problems around VoIP. It is much more difficult to track VoIP calls than regular telephone calls. This is because signals travel over an Internet connection rather than a common telephone line that connects the entire network. This is partly as VoIP technology is relatively new though, and this could become easier as the technology is worked out. Some believe that tracking calls is necessary for national security reasons, while others think that tracking private conversations should be against human rights laws. Whichever side of the debate you are, it is something that some governments will take into consideration.

The debate of banning VoIP has taken place in countries such as Germany, Russia and the United Arab Emirates amongst other places. In Germany the telecoms provider Deutsche Telekom had banned the use of VoIP over their network stating unfair competition as the main reason. It looks as though this ban will be lifted though, but there may still be a surcharge. The banning of VoIP has been discussed in Russia but as yet there hasn’t been any ban. As mentioned above they have said it is for competition reasons, but many believe it is really because they would like to track calls easily. In the UAE VoIP is currently banned in certain areas, such as Dubai. However there are reports that this ban could soon be lifted.

Andrew Marshall ©

Business VoIP

Impressions of Apartment Living
Who’s that stomping on the floor in the deep of night?
Whose voices muffled do I hear?
Is it deadly foe, or someone I know?
The floors are creaking, water is running,
Telephones ringing, someone singing,
Someone knocking on a door, perhaps the next floor,
Could it be friends coming to visit?
Laughter down the hall, someone pounding on a wall,
Crying in the middle of the night, something’s not right,
Emotions are being shared, but not with me,
And throughout the din, my walls keep closing in,
Smells of a barbeque from a party upstairs,
And I wish I’d been invited by someone who cares,
T.V. programs endless, finding something to do,
Four blank walls and no one to talk to,
Exercising to keep up strength, but please leave no time to think,
Checking the mailbox, walking to the store,
I’m busy, yes, but there has to be more,
Perhaps someone will visit, either friend or kin,
Because when I’m alone, my walls keep closing in.

This is a bit of departure from emerging media. Call it a tangent on an old emerging media that has turned into a monster. While I’m looking for work, and appealing denial of unemployment benefits, I’ve been doing some part-time work calling on behalf of a business consultant to set up appointments.

I’m calling small businesses, as that’s who the consultant focuses on.  With all of the discussion on emerging media, and knowing there certainly is simple technology available, a significant number of small businesses have not mastered simple marketing basics–have someone answer the phone when it rings. I estimate that I get a live answer 1 out of 10 calls that I make.

Now, because of the sales position I had which meant meeting with small business owners (or trying to catch them), this was not something I was unaware of. As they’ve cut employees, often a receptionist or office manager is one of the first to be let go. Why?

Even the inventor of voice mail, Gordon Matthews,  comments that it is not turning out as he had envisioned it.  He did not “foresee how many ways businesses could devise to misuse his system.”

First, it then puts the owner (and possibly shared with other employees)  in a position of handling many of these duties which are low impact as far as revenue, as owners are typically the person responsible for marketing the business.  Removing a person to answer the phones and handle inquiries that might result in business not only puts the owner in the position of working in the business even more than working on it, they are driving away prospective customers.

Second, with today’s technology, there are many options for voice answer. There are many answering services that can be contracted with to answer the phone and relay a message. Or forward the call to another phone in the office.

Third, people don’t like voice mail answering a business phone. This has been consistent for more than a decade. Having worked in a business where live answer was a must, even into “after hours” up to 8 p.m., that businesses have voice mail answer or worse, no answer at all, is incomprehensible.

When one considers that 68% of customers leave and change companies for the product or service because of an impression of “indifference” think of the impression that voice mail or no answer leaves. It says “I don’t want your business.” This figure was provided by the company that I used to work with to do three times a year phone shopper surveys.

In “Live Answering Service vs. Voice Mail,” 20-year phone answering service veteran Chris Moschella relays information from a survey conducted by ABC Advertising of 10,000 consumers which was released to the New York Times. While this information is a couple of years old, it is still very valid:

If responding to a TV, Radio, or Print Advertising how likely are you to leave your name and telephone number in an answering machine:

68% – Not likely

21% – Likely

11% – Unsure

How many businesses can afford to give up 68% of their potential business? Add to this the additional information from other sources quoted in the article:

“80% of callers who receive a voicemail system hang up. – Fortune Magazine 6/2006″

“Callers responding to print, media, or telemarketing campaigns are 8 times more likely to leave their information with a live representative than in a voicemail box.

– Sales Digest 12/ 2007″

There are affordable options for live voice answer for a business phone. Depending on the business, even gaining one or two new customers can more than pay for the cost of someone answering the phone, whether in the office or through a service. In this day and age of email, text messaging, and reduced live contact, a person answering the phone is welcomed and definitely leaves a more positive impression with the caller, who is often getting their first impression of the business by how the phone is answered.

This is marketing at its most basic.

It may, of course, just be purely coincidence that you’ve just been thinking about dear, old Fred, because you haven’t heard from him in months – and then, a short while later, Fred rings you up (or calls, as they say over here). If this mental pre-connection-telephoning happens more than once, you may be beyond purely coincidence and into the ESP realm.

A friend of mine, recently told me about Rupert Sheldrake’s psychic telephone experiment (see below). You can find it on YouTube and see for yourself how the youngest of 5 sisters (former members of a Girl Band) was able to “know”50% of the time, which of her sisters was telephoning her from a location a short distance away. This stunningly high percentage rules out guessing (guessing would only account for 25% correct). The young sister (the receiver – just like a telephone component) proved to be the highest scorer out of 1000 people tested in this experiment.

Now, there are many skeptics who love to eviscerate U.K. biologist/psi researcher Sheldrake’s experiments, and I am sure they are open to targeting this one, as well. But seeing is believing. And also believing is if you’ve experienced the pre-cognition of knowing who’s calling before they call – or thinking about some one – and shortly thereafter, they call. These out-of-the-lab experiences will never convince scientific or self-proclaimed skeptics that psi/ESP exists, but if it happens enough to you, who needs a skeptics’ validation, any way? In my humble (well, maybe not so humble) opinion, psychic skeptics are highly over-rated. Just like the psychics they target (some, actually credible scientists), they have a stake in maintaining their identities and proving their viewpoints, despite any evidence to the contrary. There is no wiggle room or “maybe I was wrong” in any skeptics’ vocabulary (at least those I am most familiar with whose names I will not mention here).They are hard as nails, these skeptics, and just as inflexible.

One of the things I thought of when the word “telephone” appeared was that old children’s game where we sat around in a circle and whispered a phrase to one another to see if we could get the phrase repeated correctly until it was pronounced by the last person in the circle. The fun part of this game was when “Say hello to Peter Pan and Tinkerbell ” came out “Wash the pans, then ring the  bell” or something like that. The other thing I thought of is how so many people don’t even use telephone instruments like the groovy retro Banana phone pictured above. The rotary dial (as shown) has given way to push buttons which then gave away to cell phones (my friend had on in the 1970s that was as big as a mini laptop) and now some people don’t bother calling anymore; they just text. (That is the preferred mode of Sonny Boy). I dislike texting. It certainly does nothing for psychic voice-reading (an interesting way to “read” between the words). The other day, I got a random text message  that was as garbled as one from the old telephone game.The text was a declaration about not sharing his wife’s boobs anymore. I have no idea how that conversation started, but I could “read” it,  if I wanted to….

Sheldrake YouTube video: http://tinyurl.com/yh5nk55

BCS (British Computing Society) – UK workforce will be ‘increasingly mobile’ by 2012

http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=conWebDoc.32810

 Microsoft – Number of mobile workers set to rise

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/smallbusiness/sbnews/mobile-working/Number-of-mobile-workers-set-to-rise-19414868.mspx

 Women in Technology – Workers use technology to become more flexible

http://www.womenintechnology.co.uk/news/workers-use-technology-to-be-more-flexible-news-19414349

 Brookson – Contractors to become increasingly mobile

http://www.brookson.co.uk/news-and-press/19414454/contractors-to-become-increasingly-mobile.aspx

Les Touch Phones

Les téléphones d’aujourd’hui sont des outils à multi-usages, capable de prendre en charge de nombreuses applications à la fois pour les consommateurs et le commerce. Les PDAs, et les différentes catégories évolutives de Smartphones permettent aux utilisateurs d’accéder à Internet, pour envoyer des e-mails, des messages instantanés, des SMS, surfer sur le web mobile, mais aussi travailler avec des documents, et gérer des listes de contacts en autres. Les portables sont souvent considérés comme un module externe de son propre ordinateur. Cela permet de travailler en déplacement, mais aussi de synchroniser son travail avec son ordinateur pour enregistrer quelconque changements.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10: promo video | Mobiland

περιμένουμε το Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 να ανακοινωθεί μέσα στην εβδομάδα, ωστόσο η Sony Ericsson, αποφάσισε να δώσει στην δημοσιότητα ένα βίντεο για να μας κεντρίσει το ενδιαφέρον. Το XPERIA X10 βασίζεται σε ένα ταχύτατο Snapdragon CPU, διαθέτει 8 Megapixels κάμερα και οθόνη 4″.[next]

 

Voice Commands and Menu Readout

Verizon Wireless supports Voice Commands and Menu readout on a majority of our devices. Voice Commands provides the customer the ability to hear information that appears on their phone screen as well as dialing the phone by either saying a name contained in their phone book or saying the specific digits to the dialed. Menu readout allows the customer to hear the menu label and information under that menu instead of looking at it. Please note that in order to hear menu read out the phone setting for read out must be set. Learn more

Screen Reading Software

TALKS for Verizon Wireless  is available and can be purchased as a pre-loaded software or purchased separately. Learn More

Large Fonts

For customers who need a larger font, Verizon Wireless offers the Knack, which has an easy to use menu with large font and has large font when dialing. The Knack also has voice commands and dedicated colored keys for ease of use and navigation. Learn more about the Knack.

411 Assistance

For customers who are blind, have low vision, a dexterity disability, or a cognitive disability Verizon Wireless offers Free 411 assistance. In order to be eligible for the Free 411 service Verizon Wireless does require appropriate information verifying that the requirements of the program have been met.
Customer’s whose disability significantly inhibits the ability to read a phone directory, dial a phone number, read a 411 text message response to an inquiry or remember a phone number may be eligible for the program.
Verizon Wireless requires that one of the following forms of acceptable information be provided in order to be eligible for the free 411 program:

• A copy of an approved Social Security Administration claim stating in detail the nature of the disability.
• A copy of an approved Veterans Administration claim stating in detail the nature of the disability.
• A letter from a physician on letterhead, detailing the nature of the disability.
• Copy of the driver’s license or state issued identification card that specifies the disability.
• Copy of the letter from your landline carrier that verifies you are currently receiving free directory assistance from that carrier for your disability
  Please note that if the disability is not clearly stated on the information provided your request will not be processed.

Please print off our Free 411 program to send the information and additional information that is required in order to process your request.
Or you can call customer service for further information.

Chat Without Talking

TXT Messaging is the name for Verizon Wireless’ family of text messaging services. This includes all 1-way and 2-way text messaging services. You can send and/or receive text messages in a meeting, at a party, at the movies!

You can get unlimited text messaging, email, and Instant Messages on a Nationwide premium plan. For more information, visit our Nationwide Messaging Plans.

Alternate Media Formats

To assist customers with visual impairments Verizon Wireless provides their bills as well as their product and services brochures, where readily available, in alternate media formats including:

• Braille
• Large print format
• 3.5 diskette
• CD-ROM

Alternate bill and manual formats can be ordered through Customer Service or online. For more details on how to order online, please request alternate media formats.

Verizon Wireless provides the following manuals in alternate format: LG VX9900, LG VX8700, LG VX8350, LG VX8300, LG VX5200, LG VX4500, LG VX5300, LG VX5200, LG VX4650 and the LG VX4700

Back to Back Calling

In order to make a call immediately following another, depending on your phone you must do one of the following:

1. 1. Press the END key twice
   2. Close and reopen your phone if it is a flip style, wait 3-5 seconds after the first call ends in order to begin dialing.
      -OR-
   3. Reactivate the command list to place your next call.

Source: Verizon Wireless Accessibility Page

Other Pages:

Hearing Aid Compatible Products

Hearing Aid Compatibility

TTY Compatibility

Voice Commands and Menu Readout

Verizon Wireless supports Voice Commands and Menu readout on a majority of our devices. Voice Commands provides the customer the ability to hear information that appears on their phone screen as well as dialing the phone by either saying a name contained in their phone book or saying the specific digits to the dialed. Menu readout allows the customer to hear the menu label and information under that menu instead of looking at it. Please note that in order to hear menu read out the phone setting for read out must be set. Learn more

Screen Reading Software

TALKS for Verizon Wireless  is available and can be purchased as a pre-loaded software or purchased separately. Learn More

Large Fonts

For customers who need a larger font, Verizon Wireless offers the Knack, which has an easy to use menu with large font and has large font when dialing. The Knack also has voice commands and dedicated colored keys for ease of use and navigation. Learn more about the Knack.

411 Assistance

For customers who are blind, have low vision, a dexterity disability, or a cognitive disability Verizon Wireless offers Free 411 assistance. In order to be eligible for the Free 411 service Verizon Wireless does require appropriate information verifying that the requirements of the program have been met.
Customer’s whose disability significantly inhibits the ability to read a phone directory, dial a phone number, read a 411 text message response to an inquiry or remember a phone number may be eligible for the program.
Verizon Wireless requires that one of the following forms of acceptable information be provided in order to be eligible for the free 411 program:

• A copy of an approved Social Security Administration claim stating in detail the nature of the disability.
• A copy of an approved Veterans Administration claim stating in detail the nature of the disability.
• A letter from a physician on letterhead, detailing the nature of the disability.
• Copy of the driver’s license or state issued identification card that specifies the disability.
• Copy of the letter from your landline carrier that verifies you are currently receiving free directory assistance from that carrier for your disability
  Please note that if the disability is not clearly stated on the information provided your request will not be processed.

Please print off our Free 411 program to send the information and additional information that is required in order to process your request.
Or you can call customer service for further information.

Chat Without Talking

TXT Messaging is the name for Verizon Wireless’ family of text messaging services. This includes all 1-way and 2-way text messaging services. You can send and/or receive text messages in a meeting, at a party, at the movies!

You can get unlimited text messaging, email, and Instant Messages on a Nationwide premium plan. For more information, visit our Nationwide Messaging Plans.

Alternate Media Formats

To assist customers with visual impairments Verizon Wireless provides their bills as well as their product and services brochures, where readily available, in alternate media formats including:

• Braille
• Large print format
• 3.5 diskette
• CD-ROM

Alternate bill and manual formats can be ordered through Customer Service or online. For more details on how to order online, please request alternate media formats.

Verizon Wireless provides the following manuals in alternate format: LG VX9900, LG VX8700, LG VX8350, LG VX8300, LG VX5200, LG VX4500, LG VX5300, LG VX5200, LG VX4650 and the LG VX4700

Back to Back Calling

In order to make a call immediately following another, depending on your phone you must do one of the following:

1. 1. Press the END key twice
   2. Close and reopen your phone if it is a flip style, wait 3-5 seconds after the first call ends in order to begin dialing.
      -OR-
   3. Reactivate the command list to place your next call.

Source: Verizon Wireless Accessibility Page

Other Pages:

Hearing Aid Compatible Products

Hearing Aid Compatibility

TTY Compatibility

VOICE TEXT: Some of the current options for deaf people to access the telephone systems in the UK.
How Does it Work?
VoiceTexts set up a standard voice call for you. Using advanced realistic text to speech, you can communicate ("speak") in real time to the other party by pressing the keys on your phone. You can say whatever you want.
You can say things in a male or female voice. You don’t need to hear anything as the VoiceText service will automatically text you a response of the person you called.
Using the interactive setup on the website, you can easily program personal phrases like your name and address or your SMS number, and store them as your personal Voice Texts indefinitely.

For example:
A deaf person is trying to contact the helpdesk at a breakdown service. But, (as usual) there’s only a voice number available. With VoiceTexts the deaf person can contact the helpdesk directly, using the breakdown services voice phone number.
When connected, the deaf user can directly communicate with the operator and explain the situation. Then request SMS communication between the breakdown service and him/her self. Then the deaf person can then disconnect the call, and continue the communication normally by SMS.

 

Voice Texts Online
MM
Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:46:00 GMT

It occurs to me, as I sit here at my computer, that I should write a little something about my work, and about my office. It was me, after all, who was only too quick to moan about it a few weeks back; moan about the moving around, about the cleaning up, and the updating. I wrote about how I hoped it would be nicer, when it was all done; I hope things would be able to run a bit more smoothly. And thankfully they do! The mission was a success. Things have been updated, and they work – and they work very well.

The new business broadband is the source of a lot of this new smoothness. Initially, we had been worried that, with limited business sdsl availability in our area, we wouldn’t be able to go for the ideal internet connection, but in the end it worked out. The new internet is not only a lot faster than our previous one, but it doesn’t seem to disconnect as much either. There were times before where you could be working, and out of nowhere, and apparently for no real reason, you would get cut off. As long as I haven’t just jinxed it, it seems to be the case no longer.

And then on top of that, in a move that was almost as needed as the internet fix, our telephones were updated. Mostly this is because our phones were the most out of date things in the office. Probably even more out of date than Jack’s Tottenham shirt, which is yellow and very, very dated. Now our phones can do all sorts of fancy stuff. It is a little bit like these new voip phone systems, and can do a lot more than just serve as a telephone. Fancy stuff.

Tomorrow is the big day. Wembley. The NFL, over here in England once more. So there is a lot to look forward to, and I’m growing more and more excited by the minute.

Where would we be without all these sophisticated office telecoms systems eh? At the weekend my credit card shaped car key stopped working, which made opening and locking the car somewhat difficult. So I rang my local garage on the telephone.

Needless to say they were not answering their telephones. No I was instantly lost deep in the bowels of a voip system giving me a range of choices I did not want. Eventually I got through to someone who could not help me and they diverted me back into the system where I was able to talk to a very helpful man who told me what I needed to do next.

Depressingly, this involved finding a utility bill, my car registration document and an official document with my photo on, then turning up at the garage with £150 so they would then order a new key. Imagine my surprise then when I turned up at the garage later in the day, clutching the afore mentioned documents to find not one but two people sitting at reception with absolutely nothing to do – because the damn VOIP phone system was answering the telephones for them – and making all their customers vow never, ever to buy one of their cars, ever again.

I quietly mentioned in passing that perhaps it is a good idea for a customer-service based business to actually talk with their customers – but I just got a good sneering at. I was tempted to ask about business sdsl availability so they could do everything on line and not have to face real people ever again.

So here I am £150 worse off, still without a key and patiently waiting for Renault to send me another one. When it comes it will let me into the car if I just touch the door handle. And it will lock the car all on its own as I walk away. Great.

What will they think of next? This is the THIRD time my high-tech key has failed. (4th if you count the time I inadvertently put it through a colour-fast cycle in my washing machine. Maybe they will come up with something simple like a key you can use again and again for years. I should be so lucky!

Ina Fried writes on CNET that T-Mobile Sidekick data problems over the past couple of weeks have been “particularly rough” on deaf users who are among the most loyal fans of the device. Deaf users say the Sidekick had been a lifeline, allowing them to keep in contact with friends and family and to communicate [...]

Sidekick outage hit deaf community hard
Patricia Bauer
Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:41:15 GMT

Telephone system is a multiline telephone system is basically used in commercial areas to connect the peoples in at a time as well as residence purpose the telephone system operated by switches, line buttons. This system was distinguished from a private branch exchange (PBX) it is allowed the users to see and control the calls directly, manually, using lighted line buttons. But now this era these systems become so confusing. Now at the time to use electronic key systems which displayed and allowed access to all connected PSTN lines and stations. This system is also supported by ISDN and in this both the analog and digital signaling types support which gives ‘hybrid ‘designation. LSI also allowed smaller systems to distribute the controls into individual telephones that don’t require any single shared control unit .some amendment of PBX now modern office PBX can serve up several hundred internet lines, offering high-quality communications and optimizing the external line use. Micro PBX installed in homes, apartments, small offices, where several telephones are connected to one external line.

In the business era improving the efficiency of your business telephones services plays crucial roles by the use of this technology business become easy to all over the world. installs ,maintains and supports affordable , there are many features for medium and small each kind of business. The phone system is an easy to use ,all in one package that is unmatched in terms of affordability and usability. the phone systems has many options which is run the business in an efficient manner such as conference calling ,voicemail, auto attendant, door phones, caller –id off-site call transfer and cutting edge, usability features such as the ability to transfer your voicemails directly to your Email inbox as a wave file. The talkswich system helps you communicate within the organization providing you crystal clear voice experience to communicate between business associates so that you don’t even miss out a single word in your effective communication. In this also some specific feature attach of PBX and make up business network communication more simplified. Furthermore, if its value is taken into accounts even then it’s unbeatable because of nominal cost in these competitive times. For more Information Please Visit. http://www.voiceipcomms.com/

from The Economist, 2009.08.15:

Telecoms operators are seeing customers abandon landlines at a rate of 700,000 per month. Some analysts now estimate that 25% of households in America rely entirely on mobile phones (or cellphones, as Americans call them)—a share that could double within the next three years. If the decline of the landline continues at its current rate, the last cord will be cut sometime in 2025.

…

The recession has accelerated cord-cutting, explains Stéphane Téral, an analyst at Infonetics Research, since people want to save money and are readier to sacrifice their landlines than their mobiles. But the problem is particularly acute in America because of the vastness of the country, which makes fixed-line networks expensive to run or improve. That, along with upheaval in the telecoms industry in recent years, has made internet access over landlines in America annoyingly slow, even in the cities, leaving landlines much more dispensable than they are in Europe.

I’ve had yet more problems with BT.  First of all they cut my download capacity even though I am paying at the premium rate.  Then they had the temerity to cut off my broadband altogether, simply because I hadn’t paid the on-line bill which I had not seen.

So all is not well at Rob Towers.  And I have once again been thinking beyond BT home phones for my home phones and broadband service.  The only trouble is deciding who to use nowadays for a telephone system… which has always proved too much of a decision.  I am not much of a telecoms expert.  My prime criteria are that everything works… and that the set-up is easy.  And that help lines, even if they are in India are useful and work.

You’d think that is not too much to ask from a telecoms service.  But it seems that it is.  For a start, without cable, you are somewhat limited in your choice.  You also have Sky to consider.  But you know that they are primarily flogging television channels – so relying on Sky for telephone system as well as your telecoms seems a risky option.

I am sure I am not the only non-techy telecoms user in the world.  I am not ashamed to admit that I don’t know my adsl internet from my sdsl internet.  But like most people – I know somebody that does.  That nice Mr Google can usually be relied upon to come up with the cheapest option.

 So at the moment I am still with BT who are taking a huge monthly fee for servicing a telephone system that is really rather simple – and providing a broadband service that is really rather poor.

The frustrating thing is that there is nothing I can do about the latter.  My poor broadband service is dictated by my poor location (in broadband terms) which is provided b y BT.  Whoever I go too will not be able to alter that salient fact.  This is rather a pity – because it is the most important item on my telecoms agenda.