Telephone announcement
A telephone announcement is a saved voice message that is played automatically to the participant. It usually transmits certain network or subscriber-side information to the subscriber and can also call for interaction.
Examples of telephone announcements are information for the caller about a delayed availability , unavailability or absence of the called party ; sometimes the caller can also leave a message .
The announcements are either configured individually by the subscriber using an answering machine , voice mail system (VMS), telephone system or Audiotex system, or they are switched as network-side announcements by the network operators . Nowadays the messages are mostly digitally stored, only with older answering machines on the subscriber side are there still isolated analog tapes in use.
In addition to these announcements related to the use of the telephone network, there were and are services operated by various providers that provide very general information as announcements, sometimes for a special fee as a value-added service . This can be weather reports, news, sports results, stock market data, etc. Another example of such telephone announcement services are snow phones , which are used in the field of tourism. Such telephone announcements were also used in the fight against crime; in the television program Aktenzeichen XY Unsolved, for example, viewers could listen to voice recordings of perpetrators under certain phone numbers. Today the importance of such announcement services has fallen sharply due to the Internet, but they are still offered.
Distinction
In telecommunications systems, a general distinction can be made between fixed announcements and variable announcements. Fixed announcements consist of a fixed text and can be played once, several times or endlessly. Variable announcements consist of fixed announcements and variable parts, for example the indication of time, amounts of money and other situation-related variables. They are combined into an announcement and played back.
Network operator announcements
The usual free switching technology telephone announcements switched in German telephone networks by telephone companies :
- Announcement 1: Busy (actually only one tone and only a spoken announcement with certain telephone providers), occasionally you can also leave a message here (see also call waiting ). For calls to mobile phone destinations, the busy tone has been partially billed as a chargeable connection since 2005 - s. u.
- Announcement 2: Tone sequence of three different tones and then: "No connection under this number" or alternatively "No connection under this telephone number". This announcement is usually made when a dialed number has not been assigned.
- Announcement 3: "This connection is temporarily unavailable. Please call again later. "Or" The connection is currently unavailable "or" The person you want to talk to is currently unavailable "or" The person you want to talk to is currently unavailable, but will be informed of your call by SMS "This announcement is played if the selected connection exists, but either the line is disturbed, or if there is no free switching capacity ( overbooking , often occurs with particularly cheap call-by-call providers) or if a mobile phone subscriber has not switched on his mobile phone and has not activated a mobile box either . In the latter case, the announcement has been increasingly replaced by a slightly modified announcement since 2005, which is usually chargeable to the caller - see below. Another reason for the announcement may be that the subscriber has not hung up the phone (the announcement comes after a certain period of time; the busy tone sounds beforehand). Alternatively, instead of this announcement, you will hear a busy tone with very short intervals ( lane busy ) in the event of faulty lines or overbooking of the network capacity, or a short sequence of three tones as a sign of network overload or disturbance for calls from the cellular network.
- Announcement 4: “This phone number is limited to the region and cannot be reached from your area code.” - even if phone numbers from cellular networks and phone booths are blocked .
- Announcement 5: “Your call partner is busy, you are knocking” - only sent to the caller by some exchanges instead of the ringing tone during the call waiting .
- Announcement 6: "The number dialed is busy. If you would like to be connected as soon as it is free, please say yes ”- voice control of callback when busy in the Deutsche Telekom network
- Announcement 7: "The network operator you have selected does not currently offer the service you have selected in your area" - the provider selected using the call-by-call area code does not exist, does not offer its services in the region of the subscriber or has one Location insufficient network interconnection to offer call-by-call local calls .
- Announcement 8: "(ISDN) service or service feature not possible" - generic error message from switching equipment
- Announcement 9: Price announcement for call-by-call before the connection is established
- Announcement 10: Network operator announcement when dialing the test number 0310/0311
- Announcement 11: "This number cannot be reached by your connection". With certain freephone numbers, this announcement is switched when the caller hangs up again after a short time. In these cases abuse is assumed and the number called is blocked for 24 hours.
The network operator announcements are usually combined with corresponding audible tones , e.g. B. Advisory tone (3-tone sequence), announcement 3, short pause, busy tone.
Payable unavailability announcement
From 2005, the German mobile phone providers established SMS notification services for missed calls and have since then switched this call info via SMS to all their customers with deactivated mobile boxes without being asked . Callers to such mobile phone connections receive an extended unavailability announcement with the following content: "The subscriber cannot be reached at the moment, but will be informed of their call by SMS." Announcements of this form are usually billed to the caller (also from the landline network ) as a chargeable connection (except for calls to the E-Plus network), which resulted in continued criticism from consumer advocates. According to a ruling by the Ulm District Court in July 2006, the billing of costs for announcements of unavailability is not permitted, which, however, was ignored by the service providers. The billing of the busy tone is even less transparent - even when the caller is rejected ( pushed away ) by the called party - than the connection that is subject to a charge for the caller, which was found when calling E-Plus postpaid contract customers. The mobile phone companies justify the unsolicited activation of the services with the supposedly high level of acceptance, since only a few mobile phone users have the notification service deactivated for calls to their own mobile phone number. Consumer advocates argue, on the other hand, that this is due to the fact that only very few consumers are aware of the fact that callers incur costs due to the unavailability announcements, and advise that when calling the Vodafone and O 2 networks, the chargeable announcements should be suppressed by means of number suppression and corresponding ones from the telephone provider in Reclaim the connection charges for such announcements.
Web links
swell
- ↑ Teltarif: Info page on chargeable non-availability announcements for calls to mobile phone numbers
- ↑ Hamburger Abendblatt: SMS call info: The unknown cost trap
- ↑ Teltariff: Costs for announcements of unavailability not permitted according to Ulm District Court Az. 6 C 3000/04
- ↑ Teltariff: Pushing away will be billed for calls to E-Plus contract customers (also when busy)
- ↑ VZ BW: Telephone number suppression against chargeable non-availability ( Memento from January 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ VZ Sachsen: Call notification via SMS: Reclaiming the connection fees recommended