In the olden days less than a decade ago, Americans would routinely call their answering service, usually womanned by a coterie of charming little old ladies, but now technology has swept them all out of a job. Centigram Communications Inc, based in San Jose, California, has announced a new US national voice mail service that it claims offers subscribers 50% price savings over existing toll-free 800 number voicemail services. Called EnterNet, it is claimed to be the first offering to combine on-site hardware with a service bureau. It consists of Centigram’s VoiceMemo system, mailboxes installed at over 100 service centres across the US, and a digital national network for connection. The price advantage comes because customers need to dial only a local number into the nearest Voice-Tel service centre and paying a local charge to send or receive a message. The company is not charging for messages sent to users in the same service centre territory, while the monthly subscription is $20 per month per mailbox. City-to-city messages cost 35 cents each. Also, the system is said to provide greater flexibility in expanding or cutting down on the number of mailboxes a user holds – again users call into the local Voice-Tel service centre to add or delete names on an as-needed basis.
