Telecom/1996-04-telecom-walnutcreek.iso/miscellaneous/starline.features

Text File | 1990-01-20 | 9.5 KB | 176 lines

Starline is an extremely flexible and powerful communications system from
Illinois Bell. Not only can you physically switch calls between lines, you
can answer any ringing line from any other free line; the lines function as
an in-house intercom to each other (distinctive call waiting tones advise
if it is an outside call waiting or an intercom call waiting); distinctive
ringing advises if a call is from inside or outside; of course it includes
three way calling on each line <as well as on [each half] of a call waiting
situation>; a 32 number speed dialing arrangement; call forwarding; no charge
for intercom calling; automatic transfer to another line on busy or no
answer after three rings; and more. I highly recommend it if you use your
phones alot and share the phones with other people.   Patrick Townson

------------------------------

Date: 30 Dec 87 08:07:09 GMT
From: portal!cup.portal.com![e-mail]
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Subject: Shocking Price For Starline!

When STARLINE comes to your community, you will probably want to dump all
your key equipment and go strictly with this neat centrex-like package.

Here is a breakdown of what I pay for "Items of Service" each month to the
Mother Company --

1 Non-pub directory    1.45  (covers both lines - both non-pub)
1 Touchtone service     .73  (first line)
1 Touchtone service     .73  (second line)
1 Line charges         4.53  (first line)
1 Line charges         4.53  (second line)
1 Supplemental chge    2.00  (line one - courtesy of Judge Greene)
1 Supplemental chge    2.00  (line two - courtesy of Judge Greene)
1 Starline package     5.52  (line one - see details below)
1 Starline package     5.52  (line two - see details below)
30 number speed dial   5.00  system feature covering both lines
1 System call forwding 2.50  system feature covering both lines
1 system call-waiting    2.50  system feature covers both lines

This totals out to $37.01 per month, of which $2.50 call waiting plus
$2.50 call forwarding and $5.00 speed dialing would be charged anyway without
Starline.

What you get for the $5.52 per line/month with Starline is the following
features --
You may have between 2 and 6 lines on the system. Each has its own number for
receiving calls. Each line would cost $5.52.  My two lines therefore cost
about $11.00

Each line is an intercom to the others. Use #2 through #8 to signal desired
line. Distintive ring identifies intercom (long single ring) versus incoming
central office call (short double ring/pause/short double ring, etc).

Answer an incoming call (intercom or central office) from the nearest phone
by dialing *9. The call is immediatly transferred to your line.

30 number convenience dialing is a SYSTEM feature. Pay for it once ($5.00) but
use it/program it from any phone on the system. Speed numbers are programmed
like this: *75 SN xxx-xxxx  where SN is the desired speed number (*20 through
*49) and xxx is the local or long distance number to be associated. You will
therefore save $5 per line after the first for each line you desire to have
this feature otherwise.

Three way calling is included. Just flash, dial the third party number, and
flash again to reconnect. There is no charge for this SYSTEM feature, which
means saving about $2.50 for whatever lines you would otherwise have it on.
Unlike conventional three way calling where if you disconnect the parties you
connected to also drop off, under Starline if you set up a three way call --
or transfer an incoming call out of the system -- the parties remain connected
until [they] choose to disconnect. In effect you operate a mini-switchboard.

To hold a call and take a call waiting (or intercom waiting), flash, dial
*8 and the new call is online (if the call was camped on to you) or dial
*8 then *9 to hold your party and pick up a ringing line elsewhere.

Either tell the latest call to hold while you finish your first call or
dispose of it. Flash and dial an intercom number (or an outside number) and
when it answers, announce transfer and hang up. Phone will ring and party
you left earlier on hold will return... or if you prefer, tell second call
to hold, flash, dial *8 and [he] goes to the bottom of the stack and your
first call pops up again. You can, as I said earlier, transfer an incoming
call off net out of your system elsewhere if desired.

Call waiting tones are distinctive; to advise if an intercom is waiting or
a central office call is waiting so you can use an appropriate answer phrase.
As long as someone is on hold on your line, flashing and dialing *8 will pop
the stack and bring the one on hold back up and stash the other one on hold.

You pay one call waiting charge to cover all lines ($2.50) and save the
same amount you don't have to pay for the other lines.

Any phone can be call-forwarded either to another phone in the system or
off-net as desired. You pay one fee $2.50 which covers all lines. The
protocol for forwarding is the usual one, except for forwarding to intercom
lines an answer (or second dialing) is not required to confirm it. All
central office calls will forward as instructed -- intercom calls will NOT
forward, thus allowing you to shunt outside calls while retaining a line
to others in the system.

An additional feature included in the STARLINE package at no additional
charge is called "Forward on Busy/No Answer". It's alot like hunt, except
that it will also hunt automatically (if programmed at the central office)
to another station in the system after three rings. This may sound like a
moot point, and it is with only two stations as I have...but in a large house
where you might not hear a phone ringing elsewhere, it is handy.
Mine are set so that line one hunts to line two on busy or after three
rings, and in reverse, line two to one under the same conditions. Since
both lines have call waiting, the lines are never "truly busy" in the
central office unless I have implemented "cancel call waiting" on one
or both lines.

Intercom calls are also subject to the Forward On Busy/No Answer provision.
However, call forwarding takes precedence over this feature. That is, if
line one is call-forwarded off net, as it sometimes is, an incoming call
encountering a busy on line two will attempt to hunt line one and will go off
net in the process....an unanswered call however will be just that...not
answered on line two. Intercom calls are subject to the central office forward
on busy/no answer but not subject to manual call forwarding.

For all this, I pay (in addition to regular charges) $5.52 times 2 per month
plus ONE SET of charges for "custom calling features". For me it nets out to
an increase of about $5-6 per month. If I had 3-6 lines, it would be
different. After the first two lines, the monthly STARLINE fee of $5.52
per line is just about covered by what custom calling charges would be.

In actual practice, my TOTAL bill to Illinois Bell is about $150 per month.
Besides the $37 or so in fees, I go through about 2000-2500 message units
per month at 4 - 5.5 cents each. I pay $11.10 for Bonus Reach Out Plans, and
$50-60 in long distance charges.

Here we also pay about fifty cents each time we deign to ask the Directory
Enquiry anything at all, and they also hit you up good for calls to 976
and/or the "900 Service Corporation" a/k/a horoscopes, dial-smut, and
chat with eight others at once.

Oh yeah....our apartment building also has "Enterphone Service"; a lobby/front
door to apartment intercom which works on the regular phone line. The building
pays for this. A caller at the front door uses the lobby phone to call the
apartment and announce himself...we dial "4" to unlatch the front door.
If not for my STARLINE, "Enterphone" functions alot the same way; distinctive
ringing or call waiting tones mean a front door caller; you answer or not
as desired. The front door caller only sees an intercom code which does not
relate to a specific apartment number; and he does NOT see or find out your
non-published number.

Since I have STARLINE, the intercom ring and ENTERPHONE ring come out the
same...

Enterphone is offered by Illinois Bell. A sturdy outdoor type phone is mounted
at the front door; a pair runs to dedicated equipment in the central office;
a pair runs back to a transformer which in turn buzzes or unlocks the door.
The pairs to our building from the central office of necessity are dedicated
since they have to serve not only our phones but Enterphone as well. If you
move in this building and do NOT have phone service, a phone plugged in a
jack will still work with Enterphone. The building pays Bell $100 per month
for the common equipment and $1.10 per month per apartment intercom phone.
Finally --
There is no charge for intercom station to station type calls and there
is no charge for Enterphone calls. Enterphone calls are automatically
timed out after one minute which is plenty of time to answer the door and
take a message or admit the person, etc.

I use an old Apple 2+ computer with a clock program to wake my brother each
day. I set it to make an outdial call at 8 AM, to dial *2, the intercom
number in his bedroom. It dials and sends alternating answer/originate
carrier noises at him (wee hah!  wee hah! wakeup! wakeup!)

The answering machine is based on line one, but answers line two after five
(transparent to the user) rings since on the fourth ring the call has
hunted over to line one, and two rings later the machine picks up. Enterphone
on the other hand overrides all STARLINE features and sticks to line one,
allowing the answering machine to answer the front door when we are out.
I think I have a very powerful and flexible phone package!  Patrick Townson

------------------------------