Are you ready for find-me service? - communications services for fast location - Communications Management - Industry Trend or Event - Column

Communications News, Feb, 1996 by Paul Kirvan

The idea of being "tethered" to one's office is a blessing and a curse to professionals. First it was radio pagers. Cellular phones brought the link even tighter. Now it's possible for you to be contacted - or "found" - by advanced communications technologies no matter where you are. The popular term for this capability is "follow-me" communications. Let's suggest an alternate - "find-me" communications.

In its most basic form, find-me service works off a pre-arranged schedule of elements. Users provide the service with their primary office phone numbers, home phone numbers, fax numbers, pager and cellular phone numbers. In short, the find-me service knows how to find its mark.

Additional services found with find-me services include voice mail (in case you cannot be found), call screening (so you can decide if you want to be found), access via dedicated number, access via 800 number, and (most recently) access by the new 500 area code.

Find-me services can provide important information to mobile staff. It may not be enough to simply page a key employee. Certainly an alphanumeric pager can provide valuable information. So can digital pagers and cellular phones. But suppose the first choice - or the second - does not reach the individual.

The principal objective of find-me service is to make one call, and reach the intended person. Find-me service - whether provided by a carrier or by a piece of equipment - ensures that one call is all that's needed to make contact.

What options are currently available? On the service provider side, most of the major long distance carriers and LECs offer find-me services. AT&T, for example, offers True Connections, a service using the 500 area code with several feature levels. MCI offers a similar service, called Friends and Family 500 Number; Sprint's version is called Future Link, and features a dedicated seven-digit access line. Bell Atlantic NYNEX Mobile Communications offers Contact Line, also accessed by a dedicated seven-digit number. Similar services are offered by Ameritech Cellular (AccessLine), US West New Vector Communications (AccessLine), BellSouth Cellular (ProLink), Southwestern Bell Cellular (Personal Number), and Central Telephone (Total Number).

Even cable TV companies are getting involved. Comcast Cellular Communications offers a service called the Personal Assistant, which was developed by Telecom Premium Services (TPS), based in Iselin, N.J. This last service is available through Comcast or directly by TPS. A similar product is called the Wildfire Assistant, developed by Wildfire Communications.

In each case, regardless of the method of service provision, users define how they want to be contacted. The Personal Assistant, for example, gives users several options for contacting them. These include office number, secretary's number, home number, fax number, pager number, cellular phone and voice mail (not necessarily in that sequence).

Call screening (in the callers' own voice) gives users the option of answering a call or sending it to voice mail or another destination. Access to the Personal Assistant can be via an 800 number or a dedicated access line. If the service is provided on-site, in lieu of a carrier-based arrangement, the Personal Assistant requires a Power PC with TPS-provided proprietary software.

Users must evaluate the value of an on-site arrangement versus an external service provider. The best approach is to work with a service provider to gain experience with the service and build user acceptance. If the volume of activity becomes sufficient, a premises-based system ma be desirable.

Some notes on 500 numbers are in order. With the advent of the 500 area code, find-me services are acquiring an identity of their own. But beware-500 numbers are not currently portable across multiple carriers. By contrast, 800 numbers are portable, and have been so since 1993. That means if you obtain True Connections from AT&T, and decide to switch to MCI Friends and Family, you will have to change your 500 numbers.

If you access your find-me service via an 800 number, however, you should be able to transport the 800 numbers with you regardless of the carrier. Among the major carriers, the top three are busy acquiring 500 area code NXX codes, in anticipation of deploying find-me services. AT&T has acquired the largest block of NXX codes (21) to date, with MCI (16) and Sprint (15) close behind.

Monthly basic service prices range from under $ 1 0 to about $20. Special features carry their own prices. Users may also have to buy additional equipment, such as specially equipped pagers that work with a specific service. The only remaining question: Do you really want to be found?