(Updated 12/6/2000) - All Rights Reserved

As the owner of a TollBridge system, you are in total control of what communications services to offer clients and how much to charge for each them.  These choices can easily be enabled or disabled with a few mouse clicks and pull down menus.

Because TollBridge can support a multinational customer base with each client potentially dialing their home country from your system, it would be especially attractive if, in addition to English, you provided them with greetings and instructional voice prompts in their native language (Spanish, French, etc.)   To assist you in creating those spoken greetings, we have created a program called VFEdit.  This software actually converts your computer into an electronic recording studio which enables you to record, play, and add music to those voice files. VFEdit is helpful in creating your additional prompts, as well as enhancing your English language files, so as to maximize their sound quality and, likewise, your business image.

Income from your Speak'n'Sell voicemail and TollBridge service can originate from a variety of sources such as a client's bank card, a corporate account with a maximum balance, or a private label debit card.  (The latter being the most popular method in the United States to sell long distance services to individuals without a permanent telephone number or fixed residence.)

If they have been paged by Speak'n'Sell because new voice mail has been received for them, they can retrieve it there.  If they wish to make a phone call, they simply enter the destination phone number.   This would naturally include the (US) area or country code as required.  

TollBridge's database keeps track of the customer's account and before actually dialing the phone number it speaks both the destination city or country.  It is then followed by the maximum number of minutes that the client can talk (assuming they wish to use their entire balance on that phone call). 

When TollBridge receives a touch tone OK, the call is placed.  There is a short grace period before billing starts in order to allow for busy signals or no answers.  Once a successful voice connection is made, both parties can begin to talk with TollBridge, keeping a close eye on your client's account balance.   A subtle but noticeable (1) minute warning beep will be played over the phone line as your client's account is nearing a zero balance.  This allows them to gracefully discontinue the conversation and, hopefully, recharge their account with you.  They can do this by purchasing a new debit card from a local retailer, mailing you a check for more prepaid calling time, or by using the optional merchant credit card processing module.

Another approach to providing your TollBridge service is to use a digital connection (known as a T1 span) which offers 24 voice channels at significantly reduced (long distance rates sometimes as much as 50% over using analog lines).   Bear in mind that running 24 channels will increase your monthly overhead but this will be offset against higher profit margins and better sound quality.   Some providers will even install T1's for free if you sign a 3 year service contract with them.

In order to run Speak'n'Sell and it's optional TollBridge module you will need a Windows NT based 586 computer and the appropriate telephone connections to answer and dial outbound telephone calls at the request of your prepaid clients.  Remember that your debit card holders can be located around the corner or across the country using a toll free (800,888,877,876) number.

With a few keystrokes and your mouse, you can create a batch of prepaid TollBridge debit cards with a fixed dollar value and expiration date. These can be used for wholesale distribution and marketing to retailers like 7 Eleven and Kmart.   If you want to be more enterprising, you can send your list of code numbers to a professional card embosser who will print your logo (or your reseller's) onto them.  This is a great promotional item for businesses to send as holiday gifts or for non profit organizations like schools or churches to use as fund raisers.  Most of the time the debit cards are never actually used, so you get to keep all the funds.

To get started, it is not necessary to create hundreds or thousands of cards.  Using Speak'n'Sell's  built-in capture box feature, clients can call in and create their own new account.  This account can be created with a zero balance.  When you receive payment (by check or credit card), you can allocate the appropriate monies to their account.  Another option would be for you to purchase the add-on module for real time credit card approval.

Most telephone companies now offer 3-way/conference calling services on  conventional (analog) lines.  This means that TollBridge can accept an inbound call, flashhook the line (like you manually do for call waiting), dial another telephone number and flashhook again.  The results will be that the client, the destination party and TollBridge itself will all be connected together.  Although this method maximizes the use of all your TollBridge phone lines, it is not the most reliable way to process phone calls because it is more difficult to determine when the destination party answers or exits the telephone call.  As a result, there may be additional long distance time billed until a proper disconnect is provided by the phone company and detected by TollBridge.

Instead of using a single phone line (above) to both answer and dial the client's phone number, you can have TollBridge connect two phone lines.  TollBridge puts the caller on hold and plays a music file, while going off hook on another phone line to make the outbound call.  When the called party answers, TollBridge connects the 2 phone lines using hardware we provide.   Although this cuts the total inbound and outbound call capacity of your system in half, it ensures accurate billing of the client's account when they disconnect.   It also allows your clients to listen to prerecorded music or sponsored sales messages while their call is being connected versus 3-way calling where only silence is heard.

Telephone service worldwide is quickly migrating from analog to digital service because it costs the long distance providers less money and they pass this savings on to you; typically at half the price (of analog) and with far better sound quality.  However digital service requires a special phone line connection called a T1 which equates to 24 telephone channels.  These phone lines cannot be connected to telephones, only into the special voice board we provide exclusively for this purpose.

Different areas of the US offer various types of T1 service.  In some areas you will only be able to use bridging as described above.  In other places, 3 way calling will be available to you.  As mentioned above with analog lines, bridging (which requires 2 lines) will allow a maximum of 12 simultaneous TollBridge conversations on a 24 line T1.  However, the long distance billing rate, quality, and disconnect supervision are far superior.  These features are of special value when used for international calling where the destination's local phone service may be poor or noisy.  T1 digital service will compensate for this weakness and thus enhance the overall service you provide to your clients. Using DNIS signalling the software can identify what number has dialed in or what telephone number was called. There is also a webcallback option so out of US clients can trigger a callback at no charge using DSL service.