Audiotex

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Audiotex is a technical term for automated telephone services provided by computers . Special hardware is often used here, which records and plays back speech largely independently via telephone lines connected to the computer. The term Audiotex is used to designate the hardware itself as well as the industrial sector that deals with the production and operation of such systems for telephone value-added services.

Typical Audiotex services are announcement services, ordering and information systems, voice mail or interactive computer games that are used by telephone. Some of these services are purely passive (announcement services), some are interactive . Interactive systems are implemented either through DTMF signals, which are generated by the caller's telephone keypad , or through speech recognition . ClubCall was a pioneer in Europe with sports and entertainment services, which generated up to six-digit caller numbers per day.

Today there are providers who make complex Audiotex applications available via web frontends. This means that even small and medium-sized companies can use applications such as fax to mail, voice recording, conferencing, data-based prerouting / CTI, customer surveys, etc. without extensive technical knowledge.

history

The Audiotex market originated in England in the 1990s and was established throughout Europe by the sports and entertainment information service ClubCall from the former MTV Europe employee, metal hammer magazine and Audiotex pioneer Wilfried F. Rimensberger in exclusive cooperation with Manchester United and several Bundesliga - football clubs ( Bayern Munich , VfB Stuttgart , etc.), the Davis Cup , etc., but also Michael Jackson , Take That introduced and other pop stars. He represented ICE (Innovation Communication Europe) Ltd. founded by former employees of British Telecom . Since the Deutsche Bundespost in 1991, after a false start with broadband services based on the French mini-tel principle, did not believe there was a need for additional services and did not want to provide the appropriate telephone lines, Rimensberger came up with the idea of using free overnight capacity from the Australian telecom company Telstra . Due to the popularity and the high volume of calls from ClubCall as well as the great interest in sex services over the phone - which were offered uncontrolled by other foreign providers - Deutsche Telekom came under pressure and two years later established its own lines under 0190 number ranges , which in 2006 became 0900 Phone numbers have been replaced. Cheaper PC systems and the growing popularity of cell phones led to further expansion of the market.

The Hamburg-based Springer-Verlag bought the ClubCall contracts from Rimensberger in 1995 and thus established itself in the market as a serious Audiotex service provider for several years. Today, Audiotex is used for many technical and consumer products to answer standard questions from customers. The companies save expensive personnel or can cover information costs through telephone charges . Many television programs use Audiotex services in viewer polls or competitions.

The systems were operated for a while under OS / 2 , later mainly under Microsoft Windows .

literature

  • Jörg B. Kühnapfel: Telecommunications Marketing . Th. Gabler Verlag, Wiesbaden 1995, ISBN 978-3-409-13197-1 .
  • Brigitte Bauer: Consumer protection and competition in telecommunications . Springer Verlag, Berlin / Heidelberg 1996, ISBN 978-3-540-61334-3 .
  • Martin Bauer: Resistance to New Technology . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1995, ISBN 0-521-45518-9 .
  • Lutz M. Kolbe: Information technology for the private household . Physica Verlag, Berlin / Heidelberg 1997.
  • Mark Leach: E-commerce as a strategic option for regional online newspapers . German University Press, ISBN 978-3-8244-7884-2 .

See also

Web links