Intellicall
Intellicall has two models of COCOT pay phones in service today. The first
model is the Ultratel. This model is no longer manufactured. It is one of
the oldest type of COCOTS. Most of them have a really annoying, robotic
sounding phone
voice that says call prices and other dialing instructions. This phone
always wants you to dial a call the correct way and it will let you know
if it thinks you are dialing incorrectly. Some models of this phone have a
scrambled keypad, that is, when you dial a number, the tones you hear
don't match the numbers you push. After a call is completed, the
scrambling ends. This phone requires an AC power source to function
properly. During a call, it will take your money as soon as it thinks the
call is answered. If it is left off the hook too long it will say
"Please hang up and try again." If you try to make a call on one
of these things with out paying enough, it will refund any money you have
already paid and tell you to deposit the full amount. Some of these phones
have a newer voice that is more human-like and less annoying. It sounds
like this.
If you were to call one of these phones from your own phone, it would
eventually answer and say "Thank You" and then play some touch
tones. Click
here to listen to such a call. Also, if you call and a person answers,
the phone will dial 111 when they pick up. This is supposed to be for
fraud prevention, because sometimes a person could call it from the phone
next to it and let it ring once and then hang up, and pick up again and
get a dial tone and dial free calls with a tone dialer. Dialing 111 gets
rid of that dialtone, but that kind of fraud is rare and having it on all
incoming calls is just plain annoying. The ringers on Intellicall phones
are cheap sounding, just a high pitched rapid chirp. Click
here to listen to it.
The current model Intellicall makes is their new Astratel II. This phone is similar to their Ultratel, but it has a few differences. It uses only the newer phone voice. It has a 14,400 baud modem, which is very fast for a pay phone. It runs only on phone line power. If you don't deposit enough for a call, it will tell you to just deposit the difference. I'm not sure if it eats your money during a call or after it, but if you leave it off the hook too long it will generate a fake fast busy signal. It also dials 111 when a person answers an incoming call at the pay phone. The Astratel II phone supports multiple languages, which can be chosen by dialing #**. Some phones can be equipped with a card slot and a language select button, eliminating the need to dial #**. On the old Astratel I model, if an incoming call went unanswered, the phone itself will answer and play touch tones. It would not say "Thank You." Click here to listen to such a call. Those models are generally no longer in service, they were all upgraded to Astratel II. That model, will answer with a 14,400 baud modem. Click here to hear the Astratel II modem.
with
thanks to