Social
scientists like to talk about the many ways that on-going advances
in telecommunications technology are changing the way we live
and work. For many of us, they say, we live in a constant state
of “future shock” as we are buffeted about as wave after wave
of technological innovations break upon our shore.
Maybe we should just have fun with this stuff and enjoy playing
with our new toys connected to telephones, computers and cable
television. Here’s some of the fun we can have: • Zap unwanted
telemarketers, even those who block their caller ID, by activating
Ameritech’s “Privacy Manager,” which interrupts unknown callers
and asks them for identification before your phone even rings.
You can then accept or decline the call and even instruct your
telephone manager to ask the marketer not to call again. The
system, introduced two years ago, guards equally well against
pesky mothers-in-law or the boyfriends of your 16-year-old daughter.
View any of a vast library of films and videos available on-line
through your cable television provider. Charter Communications,
Inc. will later this year begin testing its new “video on demand”
service in parts of St. Louis County. John Pietri, senior vice
president of engineering for Charter, says video on demand is
already operational in Philadelphia and northern Atlanta. “It’s
like having a video store in your living room,” Pietri says.
“Push a button and a menu pops up. Choose a movie and purchase
it on the spot. You have a pause button, fast-forward and rewind
capabilities just like a VCR,” Pietri says.
Take advantage of existing “Instant Messenger” technology that
allows for real-time text-based conversation between computer
users. Microsoft Corp. recently mailed millions of Internet
software CD-ROMs containing the new MSN Messenger Service, and
America Online users have long enjoyed the technology. Right
now, you can shop Lands’ End online and use instant message
as an alternative to a phone call or e-mail order. The instant
text messaging allows you to “discuss” available sizes and colors
with a sales associate. On the business-to-business side, there
have already been reports of contracts being negotiated via
instant message.
Pick up your phone to automatically receive the lowest available
rate each time you dial a long-distance number. The “Long Distance
Manager” service, launched this spring by Uniden America Corp.,
seeks the least costly long-distance rate from hundreds of available
plans before the actual call is routed.
Send a group message to virtually any number of people through
your existing CallNotes service from Southwestern Bell. The
people you are calling to an important meeting or to an impromptu
luau don’t even have to be CallNotes subscribers to receive
your message.
Select from an ever-expanding menu of established calling services
such as three-way calling, call forwarding, selective call forwarding,
priority call and personalized ring from Southwestern Bell,
Ameritech and Birch Telecom. Even call waiting, the grandfather
of phone features, is getting a makeover with a new deluxe version
that combines caller ID with call waiting. And, if you are
an Ameritech customer for local phone service, you can give
“Talking Call Waiting” a try.
Connect your TV to the Internet. You can do that today through
Charter’s WorldGate advanced analog product, and Charter’s greatly
enhanced digital WebTV is coming soon.
Tap into your desktop phone and send and receive e-mail through.
Southwestern Bell’s new “E Message” service without using a
computer interface.
Beginning this fall, slip behind the wheel of your 2001 Cadillac
Seville or DeVille and connect to the Internet for voice-activated
e-mail reception, news headlines, stock prices and more. Think
of General Motors’ new “infotainment” auto product as a PC in
your car.
And it’s only going to get better—or worse—depending on your
technology aversion quotient.
Charter’s Pietri says the cable company will soon offer local
and long distance telephone service through the same cable that
now brings the Disney Network to your children. And AT&T is
planning to market telephony to Time-Warner’s 6.2 million cable
customers.
Steve Hoover, vice president of technical support for Southwestern
Bell, says that by the end of this decade every telephone user
can be linked to the Internet.
“Developments are occurring at such a pace that by 2010 every
residential, business and mobile phone can be linked to a global
Internet, and voice and data transmission will travel over that
network, meaning that additional services can be available without
disruption to streets and buildings,” Hoover says.
Hoover also predicts the death of dial tone. “If someone is
already talking on the phone, the new messages or information
will go to any of several other places, and dial tones will
just not be necessary,” Hoover says.
Other technology experts say that today’s developing battleground
pitting the forces of high-speed telephone lines against television
cable will eventually give ground to entirely new networks replacing
the cable TV and phone systems. These new networks will be
used for all communications—data, voice and video, according
to Robert A. Brooks, head of Gabriel Communications of Chesterfield
and founder of Cencom Cable and Brooks Fiber Optics.
“The consumer is going to tremendously benefit from the coming
changes in telecommunications products and services,” adds Larry
Banks, general manager of Birch Telecom’s St. Louis operations.
“The things we are going to see are limited only by the imagination.”
William V. Poe is principal of Poe Communications, a St.
Louis advertising and marketing communications firm.
