Telephone busy signal may become sound of the past

Business Wire, May 9, 1995

SAN RAMON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 9, 1995--The telephone busy signal is fast becoming a sound of the past due to the emergence of voice mail in both the home and office, according to Pacific Bell Information Services (PBIS).

Voice mail, which can answer the phone when the line is busy, is growing at a rate of 35 percent a year in California.

"California is leading the country in voice mail use for both home and office," said Carol Sorrick, PBIS vice president of marketing. "People get irritated if they can't get through, then they get a busy signal and can't even leave a message. It's frustrating for personal calls, and it can be disastrous for business."

But not getting a busy signal is just one of the benefits of voice mail. Residential consumers use it to give a professional edge to their home-based businesses; corporate employees use it to quickly forward or reply to voice mail messages from others in their work group.

As for the future of voice mail, Sorrick says it will become even more ubiquitous as "universal mail" becomes a reality. "The voice mail of the future will let us access fax, voice and electronic mail by phone or by computer using popular PC software programs. It will also be able to turn text into speech and speech into text -- the line that now separates the phone and computer will be blurred or non-existent."

PBIS, which provides voice mail to California businesses and homes, is among the world's largest voice mail service providers -- delivering more than five million messages a day. Pacific Bell Information Services (PBIS) is based in San Ramon, Calif., and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pacific Bell. Parent company Pacific Telesis is a diversified telecommunications company based in San Francisco.

CONTACT: Pacific Bell Information Services

Sandy Hale, 510/806-4438

or

Information Arts Inc.

Andrea Grindeland, 415/428-2962