Infone
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Infone was a service launched by Metro One Telecommunications in 2003. The service was discontinued effective December 14, 2005.


How it worked

Infone included
directory assistance In telecommunications, directory assistance or directory inquiries is a phone service used to find out a specific telephone number and/or address of a residence, business, or government entity. Technology Directory assistance systems incorporate ...
and other services via a
toll-free A toll-free telephone number or freephone number is a telephone number that is billed for all arriving calls. For the calling party, a call to a toll-free number from a landline is free of charge. A toll-free number is identified by a dialing pref ...
phone number. A user could call 888-411-1111 to request directory assistance, directions, traffic information, movie times, call completion, dinner reservation assistance and other services. Infone provided a number of innovative 411 ' concierge'-like services, including movie listings from a live operator, and offered a feature where they could provide information from a linked Microsoft Outlook calendar when set up in advance. For a period of time they advertised heavily on U.S. television, featuring ads with then
Governor of Minnesota The governor of Minnesota is the head of government of the U.S. state of Minnesota, leading the state's executive branch. Forty people have been governor of Minnesota, though historically there were also three governors of Minnesota Territory. ...
Jesse Ventura Jesse Ventura (born James George Janos; July 15, 1951) is an American politician, actor, and retired professional wrestler. After achieving fame in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), he served as the 38th governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2 ...
, emphasizing their use of all U.S. based operators. The price offered was $0.89 per call up to 15 minutes (for use when the operator connects you to the requested number, as well as for additional information requests afterwards), with $0.05 for each additional minute, making Infone also a competitively priced long-distance service. New users received 5–10 free calls. Infone identified a registered user (along with billing information; the service was only payable by credit card) by caller ID (numbers were registered on signing up) and by an advanced voiceprint recognition system (VPRS) from
SpeechWorks SpeechWorks was a company founded in Boston in 1994 by speech recognition pioneer Mike Phillips and Bill O'Farrell. The Boston-based company developed and supported speech-related computer software. Originally known as Applied Language Technologi ...
that identified the user when the user called from an unregistered telephone number (or no caller ID) through the use of a personal phrase spoken by the user (e.g., "Hello Infone!") after the welcome tone.


References

{{Reflist, 1 Telecommunications