NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/misc/entrepre/4097

Internet Message Format | 1993-01-28 | 8.7 KB

From: [e-mail] (Curtis Allred)
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 03:14:04 GMT
Subject: Re: Starting a 900 number service
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> I am interested in starting a 900 number service.  Can anyone tell me what is
> involved in doing this in terms of start-up costs and what sort of equipment I
> might need?  Any help would be appreciated.


Here is some info I saved awhile back on the subject...

=============================================================================

>I am currently looking into getting a 900 number phone line.  If
>anyone out there has looked into this, any advice would be appreciated.
>Some question that come to mind are:
>   o What are the associated costs (installation, monthly fee, cost
>     per call)?

AT&T 900 service requirements:

Deposit  $10,000 - $30,000
Setup    $1200
Monthly  $1000

Minimum number of calls is 500 for no additional per call fee.
Under 500 $.35 additional per call charge.

Waiting list 2-5 years.

>   o Do all of the phone compainies offer this service?

AT&T, Telesphere, MCI, Sprint, GTE.

>   o How does billing and payment work:

Caller gets charged $2.00 per minute.
Phone company charges $.50 per call.
Difference credited to me = $1.50

>      o Does the phone company send you a check every month?

Yes.

>      o If there is a billing dispute, is that the phone companies
>        problem or yours?

The phone companies.

>   o Are there any unique regulations or taxes associated?

No.

>   o Any other helpful hints?

Federal Law prohibits Pornography, Lying, and Profanity.


American Business Seminars, Inc.
1700 South 75 East
Provo, UT  84606

[phone]  Ask about 1-900 Quick Cash Systems.

**I AM NOT AFFILIATED WITH AMERICAN BUSINESS SEMINARS, INC IN ANY WAY**

This is a service that uses a massive answering machine to handle
1,000's of call simultaneously.  They will provide:

-  No minimum number of calls
-  They will charge you $.25 per call in addition to
   phone company charge.  Total = $.75 charge = $1.25 to you.
-  They will provide you with one 900 line without the additional
   deposit, setup, or monthly fee from the phone company.
-  No waiting.  They bought 1,000's of lines.
-  You need not purchase an answering machine.  You call their
   machine on your touch-tone phone, leave your message, and that's
   it.

The real trick to 900 numbers is advertising.  This is the upfront
cost and can be quite substantial.

Some funny facts:

The greatest money maker as of 2 years ago was Dick Clark when he
did a "Call for the #1 hit this week according to Billboard".
He grossed $2,000,000 in 2 hrs.

The 2nd most succesful line was "Dial an Insult".  The party uses
USA Today to advertise ($500 for a 1.5" ad) and regularly grosses
$100,000 - $500,000 per month.

The first 900 line ever used was a presidential poll.

900 lines is a Multi-Billion dollar business.


Kawika
From [e-mail] Fri Aug  7 14:17:53 1992
Relay-Version: version Notes 2.8.4  1990/05/09; site hpscit.sc.hp.com
From: [e-mail] (J. Robert Burgoyne)
Date: Fri, 7 Aug 1992 21:17:53 GMT
Date-Received: Sun, 9 Aug 1992 10:32:50 GMT
Subject: Re: 900 numbers
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Organization: Gotham Communications Research
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Here's an overview. Read the whole thing if you're going to read any of it
because there is important stuff at the end.

Reading this post costs $3 for the first minute, and $2 for each
additional minute. :^)



A 1-900 number is a unique type of telephone number that individuals can
call to get information or information services. Occasionally a 1-900
number can be used to fulfill a product shipment; for example you call
my 1-900 number, get billed an appropriate amount, and I ship you a product.
However, the long distance carriers frown on fulfillment operations, so
it's best to offer information through the form of recorded messages or
via a live person who answers calls.

The cost of the call is billed to the person who calls. It appears on their
phone bill at the end of the month. The cost can be based on the length of
the call or it can be a flat rate. At the beginning of the call you must
have an 18 second preamble where you permit the caller to hangup without
incurring any charges. You the Information Provider (IP) pay for these
callers who hangup during or immediately after the preamble. The charge is
about 15 cents for each preamble hangup.

The person who operates the 1-900 service only receives a percentage of
the amount that appears on the consumer's bill, because the long distance
carrier charges to carry the call and to bill for it. In addition, what is
known as a service bureau charges you money for being able to receive the
1-900 line and transfer it to your service.

You can't just get a 1-900 number and have it terminated to a simple
answering machine in your basement because the type of line over which
the incoming calls are carried is more technically complex than your
existing lines. But service bureaus will take care of this issue for you,
also charging you a fee.

Deals with service bureaus vary widely. Many service bureaus are now
rejecting porn, which is a good thing for the little guy wanting to
make money. Congress is supposed to pass legislation which will restrict
or eliminate these types of calls. This should result in an improvement
in the way that the general public perceives the 1-900 industry.

The cheapest way to get started is to sublease a 1-900 number from a
service bureau. The biggest downside to this other than earning less
per minute is that the check from the long distance carrier comes
to the service bureau and made out as payable to the service
bureau. It is up to the bureau to forward the money along to you. Nobody
enjoys giving up money in a fast and convenient fashion, and horror
stories abound about service bureaus who find all kinds of reasons
not to pay you the full amount promptly.

For more money, you can lease the 1-900 line directly from AT&T or
MCI and the check will come directly to you. The service bureau
will still handle technical aspects of your call, but the long
distance carrier's check comes directly to you, and usually more
quickly. But the cost of getting started this way can run to
thousands of dollars.

What are the downsides? First, until recently 95% of all the service
bureaus were out of Nevada so that they could do porn without any
hassles. But bureaus are now popping up in states with more uppity
laws -- even Maryland. Second, you've got to get people to call
your 1-900 number to earn any money. This means you need to place
advertising which more than pays for itself. Call any advertising
agency in the phone book and ask if they ever do advertising
work where:

  they guarantee their advertising will create a net positive
  cash flow for you after you pay their services plus the cost of
  running the ad. It will never happen.

The point is that 1-900 numbers are just another tool of the
direct marketing industry, and if your knowledge and experience
with direct marketing is zilch, you can be sure that will also be
the amount of your profits. I've seen estimates that say only
1 in 10,000 direct marketing startups will not go bankrupt in
a short period of time, Do you like those odds?

Fortunately, it doesn't have to cost a lot of money to get your
feet wet in direct marketing. The first step is to read some of
the classic books which have been listed in this group. NOTE:
The first step is _not_ to go out and spend money on some "hot"
direct marketing program or "cheap" 1-900 setup.

If you think you can devote several hundred hours of work to
this type of study, you can then try to get your feet wet. And
you will probably lose some money because while the information
you learn from books can be very good, the only way anyone in
direct marketing can honestly know an idea's viability is to
test it out inexpensively.

Direct Marketing attracts thousands of people who will only lose
money because they don't do the preliminary work. And there are
many people who will tell you information or try to sell you
advertising or services which waste your money.

Obviously this is not an exhaustive discussion of the topic.

I welcome other comments and corrections to this post.

Robert