Telephone queue
A telephone hold (or simply hold ) is when calls are answered or held without the caller's request being dealt with. Both the time span from the establishment of the call to the beginning of the processing of the caller's request and the waiting time during a forwarding to the subsequent processing (so-called downstream waiting loop ) are considered. The waiting loop ends (as defined by the Federal Network Agency ) as soon as, for example, information is requested that is required to process the request, regardless of whether this is done by means of an automated dialog or by a natural person .
Legal issues
The legal term on hold has a legal definition . According to § 3 No. 30c TKG it is “any device or business practice used by the user of a telecommunications service through which calls are accepted or maintained without the caller's request being processed. This includes the time span from the establishment of the call from the connection of the caller to the point in time at which the processing of the request of the caller begins, regardless of whether this takes place via an automated dialogue or through personal processing ".
Using a telephone queue
A telephone queue is used to inform the caller about the unavailability of the called party and, if necessary, for information purposes such as the waiting time. Professional telephone queues usually consist of background music that is adapted to the corporate identity , as well as spoken information or advertising or product presentations.
Production of telephone queues
Telephone queues are mostly produced in recording studios with professional speakers. There are also companies that specialize in telephone announcements and waiting loops. If background music is used, GEMA-free music is usually used, otherwise additional costs would be incurred.
costs
Until the end of 2012, the same costs were charged for the duration of the telephone queue as otherwise for calling the number dialed. According to the calculations of the Green parliamentary group , the Germans spent around 144 million euros in 2011 on waiting loops for paid service numbers. Since 2012, the costs for telephone queues for service numbers have been regulated in the Telecommunications Act. In the amendment to the Telecommunications Act that came into force on May 10, 2012 ( Federal Law Gazette 2012 I p. 958 ), it was decided that queues should be free for consumers and that costs should only arise if they were connected to a conversation partner. Chargeable queues may only be used without restriction for local network numbers, conventional mobile phone numbers and free phone numbers. In addition, queues may only be used if there is a fixed price for the telephone connection or in the case of time-dependent billing in which the called party bears the costs of the call for the duration of the queue. The changes came into force one year after the amendment to the Telecommunications Act came into force. Until then, a transitional rule was that telephone queues could be used for chargeable numbers if at least the first two minutes of the connection were free for the caller.
literature
- Jürgen Becker: Law and Practice of GEMA. Manual and Commentary, 2nd edition, De Gruyter Verlags GmbH, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-89949-460-0 .
- Dagmar Kutzenberger: On-air speaking & interpreting. Norderstedt 2014, ISBN 978-3-8482-6772-9 .
- Artur-Axel Wandtke : Media Law. Practical guide, De Gruyter Verlags GmbH, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-89949-422-8 .
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Queue information from the Federal Network Agency
- ↑ 'Remuneration rates WT 2' for the use of works from the GEMA repertoire in telephone queues and answering machines (PDF file, 67 kB), accessed on March 15, 2013
- ↑ tarif4you.de: Telephone waiting loops cost around 144 million euros
- ↑ Free telephone queues in future. Federal Government, October 27, 2011.
