1-5-7-1 is the name of a family of
calling feature
A vertical service code (VSC) is a sequence of digits and the signals star (*) and number sign (#) dialed on a telephone keypad or rotary dial to enable or disable certain telephone service features. Some vertical service codes require dialing of ...
s in the United Kingdom, for residential and business telephone lines and for
mobile telephone
A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...
s, that are provided by
BT Group
BT Group plc (trading as BT and formerly British Telecom) is a British multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-line, broa ...
and several other telephone service providers. The family is named after the telephone number 1571, the
special service number that is used to access it. Call Minder is the name of BT's highest level of 1571 service.
Land lines
The 1571 feature was introduced by BT Group to the UK in the 1990s after they digitised all the telephone exchanges. several other telephone service providers in the
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...
also provided 1571 answering services, including
One.Tel
One.Tel was a group of Australian-based telecommunications companies, principally the publicly-listed One.Tel Limited (ACN 068 193 153), established in 1995 soon after deregulation of the Australian telecommunications industry, most of which are ...
, Platinum Telecom,
Kingston Communications
KCOM Group (formerly known as Kingston Communications and latterly KC) is a UK communications and IT services provider. Its headquarters are in the city of Kingston upon Hull, and it serves local residents and businesses with Internet and telep ...
, and Manx Telecom. Most such providers rely on a
local loop
In telephony, the local loop (also referred to as the local tail, subscriber line, or in the aggregate as the last mile) is the physical link or circuit that connects from the demarcation point of the customer premises to the edge of the common ...
that is owned by BT Group. However, it is also available from providers that have their own local loops, such as
Virgin Media
Virgin Media is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, Cable television, television and Internet access, internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, Berkshire, Reading, Engla ...
.
In 2001, BT Group launched its Answer 1571 service as a free service, available at no extra cost to its existing telephone line customers. In 2007 a charge of £1 was introduced for any month in which two chargeable calls are not made on the line (this might apply, for instance, to people who have
Carrier preselect Carrier preselect is a term relating to the telecommunications industry. It is a method of routing calls for least-cost routing (LCR) without the need for programming of PBX telephone system.
This is the process whereby a telephone subscriber whos ...
with another telephone company). In 2014 a monthly charge (£2.25
) was introduced for all residential users of the service, and the charge for not making two chargeable calls in any month (which had increased to £2) was removed. The Answer 1571 service, a cut-down version of BT Group's Call Minder service, allows a
calling party
The calling party (in some contexts called the "A-Number") is a person who (or device that) initiates a telephone call. The person who, or device that, receives a telephone call is the called party (or callee or B-party).
In some countries, it is ...
to leave messages when the
called party
The called party (in some contexts called the "B-Number") is a person who (or device that) answers a telephone call. The person who (or device that) initiates a telephone call is the calling party.
In some situations, the called party may number m ...
is engaged or does not answer within a fixed number of rings. The system allows for the storage of up to 20 messages, each of which can be up to 2 minutes long, for up to 60 days (or 20 days once they have been heard). To indicate to called parties that they have waiting messages, the exchange sends an interrupted
dialling tone to them when they take their telephone
off-hook In telephony, on-hook and off-hook are two states of a communication circuit. On subscriber telephones the states are produced by placing the handset onto or off the hookswitch. Placing the circuit into the off-hook state is also called ''seizing th ...
. The called party can retrieve the messages by dialling 1571.
A significant advantage of 1571 answering services over
answering machine
An answering machine, answerphone or message machine, also known as telephone messaging machine (or TAM) in the UK and some Commonwealth countries, ansaphone or ansafone (from a trade name), or telephone answering device (TAD), was used for a ...
s is that messages can be recorded when the called party is engaged on another call, in addition to when the call is not answered. This is particularly useful when long calls are made, e.g., on long
dialled-up Internet sessions.
Disadvantages of Answer 1571:
* it can cause problems for computer telephone line
modem
A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by Modulation#Digital modulati ...
s, which are unable to recognise the interrupted dialling tone as a dialling tone and which will thus refuse to make outgoing calls, reporting being unable to detect a dialling tone (although many modems allow "blind dialling", without trying to detect a dialling tone);
* it costs the calling party the minimum connection charge (often comprising a Call Set-Up fee plus a 1-minute call charge) to discover that the called party is engaged, even if they do not wish to leave a message, whereas obtaining the
engaged tone
Reanno Devon Gordon (born 24 January 1979), better known by his stage name Busy Signal, is a Jamaican dancehall reggae artist.
Biography
Reanno Devon Gordon p/k/a Busy Signal was born in Saint Ann Parish,Johnson, Carolyn (2006)A Very Busy Chil ...
incurs no connection charge. The Gosport & Fareham branch of the Multiple Sclerosis Society, as well as several others, recommends as a tip for saving money when making telephone calls to "count six rings and hang up before the expensive voice starts charging you";
* the caller cannot set a
Ring Back if urgent contact with the called party is required;
* many answering machines implement call screening, which 1571 cannot do: the answering machine picks up the call with its speaker active, so that the user, if available, can listen to what the caller says, and pick up the phone only if they want to speak with the caller;
* some machines can record conversations; 1571 cannot.
To supplement the Answer 1571 services, BT provides additional services at an extra charge: the 1571 Text Alerts service sends a
text message
Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile devices, desktops/ laptops, or another type of compatible comput ...
to a designated mobile telephone number whenever a new message is left. Another service was withdrawn in March 2009: 1571 Online allowed customers to retrieve their stored messages via the
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet.
Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web se ...
.
A problem with the 1571 Text Alerts system that was not stated on BT's website is that if a mobile phone number is transferred from another provider to either Virgin or T-mobile, the alert system will not work; phone messages will be stored, but text message alerts will not be sent.
BT offers two services accessed by dialling 1571. Messages can be accessed by dialling in with an identification number, and a personal greeting can be recorded. Neither of the services can be disabled or re-enabled by the user, but must be cancelled or ordered, with a lag of several days.
* Answer 1571, £2.25/month. Calls answered after typically 7 rings. Up to 20 messages stored for up to 60 days.
* Call minder, £4.50/month, as above but 30 five-minute messages, stored for 30 days, can answer immediately or after a short, medium, or long period (typically 4, 7, or 10 rings), and can store numbers of callers who leave no message.
[
The number of rings before answering is not guaranteed, and may vary to some extent. This can be a problem if an answering machine is used on a line with a 1571 service (which cannot be temporarily disabled), with the intention that messages will be recorded on the machine; it is necessary to ensure that the machine answers before 1571 does.
]
Mobile telephones
To its mobile telephone business customers BT Group provides a 1571 Voicemail service, which is similar to the service provided to landlines. Calling parties can leave messages when the mobile telephone is switched off, when it is in an area of reduced coverage, when it is on another call, or when the call is not answered within a fixed number of rings.
References
Further reading
*
{{BT Group
BT Group
Calling features
Telephone numbers in the United Kingdom