WAYNE, Pa.-Comcast Cellular Communications Inc. is conducting a trial of the intelligent Personal Assistant service, which delivers calls to many locations using the subscriber’s existing cellular phone number.
“This is a very important step for us and signals a new generation of cellular service that will be far more user friendly,” said Donald A. Harris, president of Comcast Cellular.
The Personal Assistant, designed by Telecommunications Premium Services Inc. of Iselin, N.J., uses flexible software intelligence to route calls to sequential locations designated by the customer.
Comcast Cellular is deploying the service to 250 customers in Pennsylvania, Delaware and southern New Jersey. The product is expected to be commercially available in all Comcast Cellular markets in early 1996.
Personal Assistant provides an automated attendant that takes callers through the call process, including locational searches. Call screening offers the customer a short message from the caller; the call can be connected or switched automatically to voice mail.
Voice mail recipients can return calls by pressing a button, then return to voice mail to hear other messages. Incoming faxes can be stored and forwarded to any machine in the world. Paging customers can receive alpha or numeric alerts of incoming voice and fax messages.
Personal Assistant service also can send messages to non-users, with delivery attempted every 15 minutes until the call goes through. Comcast Cellular will market the service as a full package or by individual services. Pricing has not been set.
