ISELIN, N.J.-Dusting off patents shelved by Bell Laboratories due to commercialization prohibitions, Telecommunications Premium Services Inc. hopes to gain competitive advantage in the frontier of anywhere, anytime communications.
Founded less than two years ago by David L. Turock, a Bell Labs alumnus, TPS’ service offering is based on the linkage between the multifunctional software platforms within its “The Personal Assistant” and users’ existing cellular phone numbers. Previously, different services like faxing and paging required different numbers.
“Bell Labs put about $50 million into development, but the regulatory lawyers wouldn’t permit it to commercialize computer-related patents,” Turock said. “Bell is allowed to license the intellectual property rights for a tenth of a cent on the dollar. With that, I went to the Soros [investment] people in New York, and they jumped right in to back us.”
TPS is a privately held company with what it describes as a “long-term financing arrangement with the Chatterjee Group, an adviser to the Soros Quantum Fund.”
As now configured, The Personal Assistant by TPS provides one-telephone-number access to voice, voice mail, fax, electronic mail and both alpha and numeric pagers. The system also can provide storage, forwarding and broadcasting of faxes, caller screening and call forwarding to several locations based on individual availability of call recipients.
TPS has a worldwide joint marketing agreement with Hewlett-Packard Co. for computer processors and interface cards. “But the handsets can be whatever people already have,” Turock said. “Our systems are modular, extensible and compatible with all digital interfaces. We can work with a small PBX, which interconnects with us as if we are a phone company, or we can work with large telecom operations.”
Spring heralds the arrival of several milestones for the fledgling company. The first commercial introduction of The Personal Assistant is scheduled by Comcast Cellular Communications Inc., based in Wayne, Pa. Comcast has announced plans to make TPS commercially available in all of its Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware markets. A pricing structure was still being worked out at press time, according to Turock. The idea is to provide both bundled and individual services, depending on customer requirements.
Meanwhile, company officials said TPS is involved in a trial run of its services with another major cellular carrier in the United States. However, TPS declined to reveal the identity of the carrier until a contract is signed for commercial services.
“We’ve spent about 100 person years on the human interface with the machines and 200 to 300 person hours on the networks,” he said. “The devil was in the details because over 96 percent of callers hang up within 35 seconds, and four out of five calls don’t reach the intended person.”
Turock says the TPS system is designed for speed and persistence, and TPS promises cellular companies increases of up to 30 percent in billable call time due to improved call completion rates. Available TPS services within The Personal Assistant include forwarding messages to non-users, with delivery attempts repeated at 15-minute intervals until the call goes through. Additionally, the “cardless” calling card feature of The Personal Assistant will help users in areas with crowded cell sites because they can stay logged on while completing many kinds of communications transactions in sequence.
Call completion was a key consideration for Comcast Cellular. Alison Auerbach, business development manager for the cellular carrier, said, “While approximately 80 percent of business transactions are conducted via telephone, fewer than one third of business calls reach the desired party on the first attempt.”
TPS plans to launch a New York City market trial in mid-April involving different industry sectors and varying price structures, Turock said.
