Ring, ring, who's there? (BT's 'Free' Answer 1571 Service)

Member Name: mreyre

Product:	BT's 'Free' Answer 1571 Service
Date:	03/12/02 (4114 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's free!, you can throw your answering machine in the bin!, It's reliable!

Disadvantages: I still see the phone as an invasion of privacy

Whatever did I do before this amazing piece of new technology arrived into my household? Well, we had an answering machine, that’s what. However, a few months ago, the machine decided to give up the ghost, through a combination of overwork, and over-loaded phone sockets. On its way out, it left us with a series of garbled incomprehensible messages and then went to the great answering machine in the sky.

By coincidence, this was around the time when BT were heavily publicising their free 1571 service, on the TV and in magazines. They even went to great expense to include little “post-it” notelets inside the women’s weeklys (not that I read them of course, you understand, purely for research purposes…)

It was incredibly easy to sign up for the service, you have to wait about 24 hours for the service to “kick in” whilst the technical guys/gals at BT press the right buttons for it to work, and then Bob’s your Uncle. Basically, the phone rings for 5 rings, during which time, you can answer it in the normal manner, should you wish to. On the 5th ring, the automated service leaps into action, the person trying to ring you gets an automated message in their ear saying “please leave a message”, or something of that nature, which they either do, or don’t.

If they do leave a message, when you pick your phone receiver up, instead of the usual ring tone, you can hear an interrupted ring tone instead. You then press 1571 on the handset, and just like on the mobile phone-type voice mail service, you get a computerised lady’s voice announcing “you have one new message”. You can then listen to the message, then save it or delete it. The service has the capacity to store up to 10 messages at any one time, usually more than adequate for the average home user.

The best “thing” I have discovered about this service is that I am a regular internet user, espec
ially in the evenings. I use AOL, which doesn’t cut me off, either if an incoming phone call is trying to get through, nor after two hours continuous use, unlike other service providers. I then emerge from the study after about 4 hours of use, pick up the telephone, and I am greeted by the computerised lady informing me I have about 6 new messages, which is extremely useful, but too late in the evening for me to return the calls! However, before the 1571 service, I would have no idea if anyone had been trying to get hold of me or not.

Now, sorry in advance to Mr. Alexander Graham Bell, but I do find the telephone an invasion of privacy, we all know the phone always goes when you’re in the bath, shower, toilet or other such activity!! By using the 1571 service, you can continue with whatever it was you were doing and then ring the person back at your leisure. Double glazing salesmen never leave a message anyway, so that filters them out for starters.

If no-one does leave a message, then of course you have the back-up of the 1471 service, where you can find out the number of the person who has tried to ring. This has happened to us on many an occasion, we have then spent the next half an hour trawling through address books to try and find the number and match it up to a person or business we know, before phoning them back, or putting it down as a complete mystery, instead of simply answering the phone in the first place! Of course, the Caller Display units could also still be used in parallel with this service, whereby the number flashes up on an LCD screen when the phone rings, much as it does on a mobile phone. These units were quite popular a few years ago, and were quite expensive at the time, I get the impression BT arte phasing these inventions out, in favour of the 1571 service.

You can cancel this service at any time, should you wish to, and all information now appears on the computerised BT bills, which are even nowadays
available on the internet. They say there is no such thing as a free lunch, but here we have a free answering machine, in my opinion, much more useful and long-lasting than a tuna bagel.

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