900 Numbers History
In a little more than two decades, 900 number service has undergone a considerable evolution…beginning
as a simple polling mechanism…to an information and
entertainment vehicle…and finally, to the powerful,
interactive marketing tool it is today.
Actually, the first use of information by phone began
long before the introduction of 900 service. New Jersey
Bell, in 1927, and New York Telephone, in 1928, created
a recorded time of day service to alleviate the burden
of such requests made to its operators. These services
were the nation’s first 976 numbers. Operators on
these services actually mimicked recorded messages of the
time of day to avoid the constant propositions they heard
from interested men. Years later, in the 1950s, recorded
technology was developed, and the phone companies added
weather, horoscopes, sports, and off-track betting information
for their customers.
AT&T was initially asked to develop the 900 number
for use by television networks as a way to conduct instant
polls of viewers on matters of current interest. ABC’s
Nightline used a 900 number first during the 1980 presidential
debate, when it polled viewers on who they believed had
won the Reagan-Carter debate. Cost of the call was 50 cents.
There were so many calls that phone lines jammed around
the country. By a tally of 469,412 to 227,017, viewers
picked the Californian, and both a new presidency and phone
concept were launched.
As a spoof, those zanies at Saturday Night Live tried
their own version of the 900 polling technology. Viewers
were asked to call in to vote whether or not Eddie Murphy
should boil Larry the Lobster or let him live and give
him valuable prizes. In a close vote, Larry was granted
clemency, but Murphy boiled him anyway. So much for democracy.
And so much for our nation, which cast as many votes on
the fate of Larry as on the fate of Jimmy and Ronald a
few months earlier. Well, that’s showbiz.
Despite such high profile programs, the 900 industry was
originally limited to only 44 simultaneous programs. Thus,
the service was used sporadically for polling and supplying
various non-interactive (where the same message is heard
by all callers) information.
In 1981, during the divestiture proceedings of AT&T,
the Justice Department ruled that the Bell Operating Companies
could no longer provide information by telephone themselves.
This decision opened the door for companies and entrepreneurs
to enter the pay per call business by providing the information;
the telephone companies, meanwhile, continued to provide
the networks, transport, billing, and collections that
are common to the industry today.
The information feature came about that same year when
NASA asked AT&T for a 900 number to enable reporters
and space buffs to hear conversations between mission control
and astronauts on space shuttles. After the first two flights,
the number was made available to the public. Thousands
dialed it during the Challenger disaster.
Until the spring of 1985, nobody leasing a 900 number
received revenue from the calls. AT&T received 50 cents
for the first minute and 35 cents for each subsequent minute.
As a result, 900 numbers were primarily used by corporations
as promotion or information tools. Johnson & Johnson,
for example, used AT&T’s Dial-It 900 Service
to release consumer information during the Tylenol tampering
scare.
In April of 1985, however, AT&T began giving 900 providers
up to five cents from each call. For the first time, companies
of all kinds were able to use 900 numbers to make money.
Demand for the numbers increased significantly.
In January 1987, the 900 business changed dramatically.
AT&T stopped paying commissions to program sponsors
and introduced premium rate billing, a contract offering
that permitted proprietors of 900 programs to set a price
they want to charge for the value of the information or
service they are providing. AT&T’s Dial-It network
allowed companies to charge up to $2.00 for the first minute
of a call, permitting the information provider to keep
$1.35 (AT&T pocketed the toll from extra minutes).
The system had its limitations. It was passive (non-interactive)
only and had limited ability to offer numerous programs
at the same time.
During the same year, the now bankrupt Telesphere International
began the nation’s first interactive 900 service.
First offered in Chicago, the small interexchange carrier
(IXC – a long distance company like AT&T, MCI,
and Sprint) soon expanded service to include New York City
and later the nation in 1989. Telesphere enjoyed early
dominance in the 900 field. The introduction of pay per
call was a major hit with the small interexchange carrier.
Its revenues more than doubled from 1987 to 1988. Half
of its $36 million revenues in the first quarter of 1988
came from 900 service.
By that time, information providers could charge up to
$50 flat rate per call. This enormous profit potential
spawned hundreds of less than legitimate applications,
including children’s programs, credit card scams,
and adult entertainment. The carriers were helpless in
preventing pornographers from entering the business, as
the Freedom of Interaction Act prevented a carrier from
controlling the kind of information available on its network.
It wasn’t until the carriers were able to show their
high uncollectible rates on pornographic programs that
they were allowed to remove them. Today, the 900 industry
still suffers from the black eye it received in the early
days of the 900 business from these less than valuable
applications.
What the carriers did not count on was the rapid proliferation
of adult message lines, said Lou Delery, former general
manager of AT&T MultiQuest 900 service. “Suddenly
we were in the middle of a storm of complaints from consumers,
legislators, and attorney generals. We were spending so
much time managing complaints that the service almost didn’t
seem worth it. We decided drastic changes were needed.”
National 900 services were implemented at break-neck speed
by the carriers. In February 1989, AT&T joined MCI
and Sprint in offering its own expanded 900 service by
introducing MultiQuest – a package of several interactive
900 options. The term MultiQuest implied the vast range
of information sources available through the telephone
to serve people in their quest for information and entertainment.
Corporate America began to embrace the 900 number. Chrysler
and Paine Webber began allowing shareholders to listen
in on their meetings via a 900 number. President George
H.W. Bush even touted the merits of the industry by appearing
in a television commercial that encouraged viewers to call
a 900 number to support the USO.
Interest was at a fever pitch in 1989. Stories in the
New York Times said that 900 “could greatly expand
consumer services over the telephone.” Many other
articles talked about a new future for billing and collection
that “could some day replace credit cards.”
Prominent media such as the major television networks
regularly began using 900 service. USA Today offered sports,
weather, and stock quotes. ABC’s daytime soap opera
magazine Episodes used a 900 number to launch sales of
its publication. Two million soap fanatics responded and
ordered a subscription.
ABC also brought 900 into the homes of prime time America
with its regular use of the service as a vote line during
halftime of its Monday Night Football telecasts. On the
initial night, service bureau Call Interactive handled
over 8,000 simultaneous calls as 51% percent of the callers
chose Tony Dorsett’s rushing play as the most spectacular
play in the 20-year history of Monday Night Football.
In December 1989, in a rare act of unification among
the Big Three networks, each agreed to run a two minute
commercial after popular prime time shows to promote
a 900 number for Prime Time to End Hunger. This major
media event was designed to provide a data base of volunteers
for the organization. The commercials ran on The Cosby
Show, Golden Girls, and Cheers (NBC), Murder She Wrote,
Jake and the Fat Man, and Designing Women (CBS), and
thirtysomething and Head of the Class (ABC).
Another famous 1989 promotion was a contest to win one
of 36 vintage Corvettes, one for each year from 1953 to
1989, sponsored by MTV. More than 1.1 million people entered
the contest during its two-month run. A whopping 87% of
all entries came from a $2 900 call, while other contestants
used the free alternative mail-in entry method. This program
was later contested by a civil suit on the grounds of illegal
gambling, but the program was upheld as legal by a federal
judge.
America’s most popular game show, Wheel of Fortune,
racked up an amazing 4.7 million calls during a three-week
promotion that allowed callers to play along with Pat Sajak
and Vanna White. The game promotion ran for three weeks
to increase ratings. The over $6 million invested in advertising
included full page ads in People, Readers Digest, TV Guide
and 25 daily newspapers. The cost of the call was $2 per
minute. Callers got a coupon for a personal pan pizza from
Pizza Hut just for playing. Each night randomly selected
winners received $1,000 prizes or Caribbean cruises. A
portion of the proceeds went to Toys for Tots. Over $1
million was raised for this very worthwhile cause.
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