Bells Are Ringing Everywhere With Accessline's New Service

In "Play It Again, Sam," Woody Allen's friend Dick seems to have the singular goal of keeping his answering service updated with his current phone number.

His marriage is falling apart. He's losing close friends. People think he's a jerk. But he's never unreachable by phone.

Bellevue-based AccessLine did not exist when Allen filmed his "Casablanca" takeoff. If it had, Woody might have been deprived of a prominent running gag.

The purpose of AccessLine is one phone number per person. All that people need to reach you, no matter where you are, is your AccessLine number. As you move around, you tell AccessLine which phone you're at, and calls are automatically forwarded there.

You can use AccessLine as an on-the-run screening service. A caller can wait while you are paged; once you get the page, you can decide whether to take the call or not. The caller can leave a voice mail and wait while you listen to it and decide whether to answer.

Or the caller can leave voice mail and punch in a return number. A page will notify you of the call, tell you by code if it's urgent, and list the number to call back.

Once you listen to a voice-mail message, AccessLine will dial the party's return number automatically if you like - a habit-forming convenience if there ever was one.

Optional features include a "Fax Reflection" service that routes incoming faxes to the number of your choice; "Traveler," a service that directs a call to your cellular number anywhere in the U.S. and Canada; "Call Director" and "Call Attendant," which give callers options on speaking with other locations or directing their call in up to 10 different ways.

Because mobile people are used to giving out multiple phone numbers, AccessLine requires some getting used to. You may have only one phone number, but there are a number of codes to memorize. As of now, the system works only with US West Cellular's system in this area; i.e., you need a US West cell phone and pager to take full advantage of the service.

How it works

Here's how the system works:

When you set up AccessLine, you give the service a home number (or multiple home numbers), office (or multiple numbers), cellular, away-but-in-town and out-of-town numbers (catch on the last point: You pay the long-distance fee!). Each is identified by a code, which the pager will display (e.g., 10 is for home, 20 for office, 60 for paging).

You can punch in the length of time you want calls forwarded to a certain number, or just leave it active 'till you change it.

It takes a while to master all the options and memorize the codes - about the same amount of time it would take you to master the five or six phone numbers most busy people use (home, office, fax,etc.), the difference being you've done the latter in stages.

Your callers need to adjust to AccessLine as well. Although the greeting informs them they may punch in their number for a return call, many forget to do so. Some punch in a number but forget the area code.

I found that callers also tended to ignore my AccessLine number and use the number they usually call to reach me (one way around this is call forwarding, if you have the feature on your regular phone.)

Bypassing the system

What about the caller you know you want to hear from, and want to spare having to go through the voice messaging hoops? AccessLine offers a 1-to-3 digit code you can give them, a sort of hotline directly to you. They can touch "0" at the greeting to get through to you immediately.

If you want to screen calls, AccessLine asks a caller to state his or her name and purpose of calling. The service then calls you, lets you listen to the message and decide whether you want to talk to the waiting party.

So feature-rich is AccessLine that subscribers can't learn it all at once. Instead, the process of mastering the system is step by step, usually with users wondering if AccessLine can do something else, and finding out it can.

AccessLine's motto is "One Person, One Number," a slogan CEO Dan Kranzler had registered (and then notified Craig McCaw, whom I first heard use the phrase, that it was proprietary). The service is priced in two tiers, for individual and small businesses, and larger corporate sites. The basic service is $14.95 a month, with digital pager $24.95 and alphanumeric pager $33.95. Corporate pricing (20 or more users) is $12.95, $22.95 and $31.95.

Worth it? Dick would have thought so. It might even have saved his marriage, friendships and reputation.

User Friendly appears Sundays in the Personal Technology section of The Seattle Times. Paul Andrews can be reached by e-mail at: pand-new@seatimes.com.