THIS COLUMN has previously warned of the hidden costs of new telephone
services. For instance, the owner of a 鈥渃alling party pays鈥� pager pays no
service charges, but the unwitting caller pays through the nose for the
privilege of leaving a message.
Now there is new trap for the unwary, the 鈥減ersonal number鈥�. This, says the
Personal Number Company, is the 鈥渘ext stage of the personal telecoms
revolution鈥�. Subscribers pay 拢120 for a new number, and a service charge
of 拢3 a month. All calls to the new number are then automatically routed
via a central computer to wherever the subscriber happens to be at the
time.
The company obviously thinks the idea is a winner, because it has bought a
million numbers to distribute. Each has the prefix 07000. If the call is
directed to a mobile phone, the person who owns the number pays the extra
cost. But if the call is sent to any ordinary phone in Britain, there is no
extra charge to the person who owns the number.
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This sounds too good to be true. But it鈥檚 the caller who foots the bill
because any call made to a personal number costs 14p instead of 4p a minute
for an ordinary local call at peak times.
鈥淲e are not hiding this,鈥� says the company selling the numbers. 鈥淏ut
because it is not a premium call people don鈥檛 have to state the rate when they
give out the number. We are sure that the public will soon learn to recognise
the new numbers and know what they are paying, just as people know what it
costs to call a cellphone.
Feedback is not so sure. Did you know, for example, that with some mobile
phone companies it can cost as much to call a local cellphone as to phone the
Republic of Ireland? You have been warned. If you call any number with an
07000 prefix, it will cost you 14p a minute at peak rates, even though the
call is a local connection.
As for us, we will adopt the same practice we use when asked to call a
mobile phone 鈥� make a very brief call and ask the recipient to call back.
DOES Severn Trent Water have supernatural control over the weather? And if
so, can we be sure that it is using these powers responsibly?
Feedback has just been informed that envelopes sent out by the company just
before Christmas were emblazoned with the message: 鈥淎fter the drought of 1995
鈥� our plans for `96.鈥�
COUCH POTATOES in America will soon be able to surf the World Wide Web with
no strain to their brains.
While some cable companies are giving their customers high speed access to
the Web, a Michigan cable TV company in the US has taken an interactive medium
and turned it into ordinary TV. Web Channel is an automated Web-browser
running on cable TV. A software robot called Spider browses the Web, the way a
human might do, scrolling through pages and jumping from hyperlink to
hyperlink. The results of Spider鈥檚 travels are carried live on TV. Richard
Wiggins, the channel鈥檚 creator, says he simply wants to show people 鈥渨hat this
Web stuff is all about鈥�.
AT THE recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, all the major
electronics companies congratulated themselves on agreeing a single standard
for the new high density Digital Video Disc.
Most of the companies cheerfully predicted sales of millions of players in
the first year. The one exception was Philips. When asked about expected sales
the man in charge of DVD, Jan Oosterveld, answered simply: 鈥淚 have absolutely
no idea鈥�. From then on Oosterveld was known as 鈥渢he only honest man in Las
痴别驳补蝉鈥�.
Later, Warren Lieberfarb of Time Warner gave an impassioned speech about
the deal struck to avoid the launch of two rival systems. 鈥淚鈥檓 reminded of the
long search for peace in Bosnia. Negotiations were intense and protracted, and
then came a truce. The former combatants recognised that war doesn鈥檛 work, not
unlike the DVD manufacturers who, with some coaxing, agreed to a single
format. But watching the news recently I was struck by our troops鈥� efforts in
Bosnia, building a bridge across a swollen river 鈥� We, too, have succeeded
in building a bridge.
鈥淣o road map is perfect, of course,鈥� he burbled on. 鈥淢any bumps and curves
lie ahead. Some we can see, such as copyright protection. Again it鈥檚 not
unlike Bosnia. Our soldiers built a bridge, but beneath the snows, 6 million
land mines await those who stray or misread the terrain. Our job is to clear
the path.鈥�
At this point a journalist in the audience piped up: 鈥淔unny. I was watching
CNN this morning. There was an item on Bosnia. But nothing on DVD.鈥�
WHEN FEEDBACK bought a colour printer from computer company Canon, it
insisted on printing out near blank pages between each useful page. Phoning
Canon鈥檚 helpline revealed a nasty surprise. The 0891 number cost 49p a minute,
of which Canon received 28p a minute from British Telecom. That meant the more
problems customers had with their printers, the more money Canon earned from
the phone calls.
Worse still, callers were played 鈥渕usic on hold鈥� while waiting for one of
Canon鈥檚 experts to take the call. So Feedback鈥檚 10-minute call cost nearly
拢5, most of it spent on horrid canned music. The expert had no useful
answer to the technical question, but Canon raked in 拢2.80.
Embarrassed by complaints and bad publicity, Canon has now very decently
abandoned the premium line number in favour of an 0990 number. This costs 10p
per minute, regardless of where the call is coming from. The system is
鈥渞evenue neutral鈥�. Canon does not pay for the service but earns nothing from
customers鈥� problems.
Other companies still charging premium rates to help customers make their
computers work, please note. The worms are turning.
WRITTEN ANSWERS in Hansard are by and large boring reading 鈥� except when
the government uses the smokescreen of all this dross to slip out embarrassing
answers in the hope that no one will notice them.
One such snippet came when the Department for Education and Employment was
asked how many times ministers鈥� mobile phones had been 鈥渃loned鈥� by fraudsters.
The junior minister, Robin Squire, had to answer. 鈥淭wice鈥� was the slightly
shamefaced reply. In both cases, the phone in question was Squire鈥檚.
FINALLY, John Isles writes to tell us his favourite dumb instruction. It
was on the Kenner Toy Company鈥檚 鈥淏atman Returns鈥� costume: 鈥淐AUTION 鈥� FOR PLAY
ONLY: Cape does not enable user to fly.鈥�