1.5 Million Centrex Lines Sold: How Pacific Bell Turned the Stepchild of Telecommunications Systems Into Cinderella.SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 19, 1996--Centrex, once the stepchild step·child n. 1. A child of one's spouse by a previous union. 2. Something that does not receive appropriate care, respect, or attention: "Demography has a reputation for being the stepchild of . . . of telecommunications systems, has blossomed into a Cinderella. Pacific Bell announced today it has reached the 1.5 millionth line milestone with its flagship Centrex product, a central office-based telephone switching Telephone switching Moving one's assets from one mutual fund or variable annuity to another by telephone. telephone switching The movement of an investor's funds from one mutual fund to another mutual fund on the basis of an order given via system whose remarkable recovery from a freefall a decade ago reads like a Marketing 101 case study. Today, the future of Centrex is bright. Centrex sales jumped 14 percent from October 1995 to October 1996. This year was Centrex's most successful since its 1961 California debut. More and more savvy companies seeking flexibility, value, and reliability have made Centrex one of the fastest-growing telecommunications systems around. "It took us 32 years to reach the one million mark, but only three years to reach 1.5 million," notes Jim Murphy  Please see the discussion on the . So what's changed since the bottom dropped out of the Centrex market ten years ago? 1987 was the year Pacific Bell lost 97 percent of the bids it made with its "flagship product A primary product of a company, which is typically why the company was founded and/or what made it well known. For example, MS-DOS, Windows and the Microsoft Office suite have been flagship products of Microsoft. CorelDRAW is a flagship product of Corel Corporation. ." "The industry considered Centrex a laughing stock laughing stock Noun a person or thing that is treated with ridicule laughing stock noun figure of fun, target, victim, butt, fair game, Aunt Sally Brit. because in the mid-80s, Pacific Bell lost hundreds of thousands of Centrex lines and about half of its top 20 Centrex customers to PBXs," notes Murphy. PBX (Private Branch eXchange) An inhouse telephone switching system that interconnects telephone extensions to each other as well as to the outside telephone network (PSTN). refers to private branch exchange, a premise-based telephone switching system that gained popularity among businesses in the Eighties. But once Pacific Bell officials finally got their wake-up call, they embarked on a three-phased Centrex product improvement plan that included accelerated schedules for installing fiber and upgrading central offices to digital. In 1987, pricing was restructured too, with the minimum number of Centrex lines reduced from 100 to 20. At the same time, touch-tone, conference calling, and other optional features were repackaged as part of basic Centrex. In 1989, Centrex became available for as few as two lines, making it an attractive choice for a much wider range of businesses. Then, in 1993, Centrex got another leg up, with the introduction of the Classic Feature Package, which offers the eight most popular Centrex features in a single cost-effective package. "The ability to offer customers features such as Call Forwarding call forwarding n. A telephone service that enables a customer to have an incoming call automatically rerouted to another extension. Noun 1. , Call Hold, and Call Pickup from any phone on the Centrex network- all at a significantly reduced price- suddenly made Centrex the smart choice for all kinds of customers," says Murphy. Indeed, top company officials agree that the future of Centrex looks bright. Ever-increasing technological advances have enabled Centrex to compete, and even surpass, capabilities of PBXs, while rapid growth for many burgeoning California businesses makes the ease of adding unlimited numbers of new lines a major Centrex asset. A sales boom is expected in the latter part of next year, when Pacific Bell plans to unveil Centrex 2.0, a series of product enhancements that will provide another turnkey package like the popular Classic Feature Package. Pacific Bell will also introduce nine new digital Centrex features, including Call Trace, Call Return, Remote Access to Call Forwarding, and Music on Hold. "With Centrex, California businesses will be able to harness the power of a host of state-of-the-art digital features along with the speed and convenience of ISDN ISDN in full Integrated Services Digital Network Digital telecommunications network that operates over standard copper telephone wires or other media. data switching services," says Murphy. "And all this can be had for a very reasonable price, without an up-front capital expenditure or hiring telecommunications technicians. "Centrex is meeting the demands of California's growing businesses," adds Murphy. "Today, more and more companies are putting their focus back on their core business-and leaving the telecommunications to experts at Pacific Bell. The continuing growth in telecommuters has also fueled the appetite for Centrex- and there's no end in sight for the sustained growth we anticipate for a product that critics once said was destined des·tine tr.v. des·tined, des·tin·ing, des·tines 1. To determine beforehand; preordain: a foolish scheme destined to fail; a film destined to become a classic. 2. to obscurity." Pacific Bell is a subsidiary of Pacific Telesis
Pacific Telesis Group was one of the seven Regional Bell Operating Companies created after the 1984 breakup of AT&T as a holding company for Pacific Bell and Nevada Bell. Group, a diversified communications corporation based in San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden . CONTACT: Pacific Bell Mary Hancock, 415/394-3620 Dick Fitzmaurice, 415/394-3764 (Bay Area) David Dickstein, 213/975-4074 (Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. ) Linda Bonniksen, 213/975-5061 (Los Angeles) Dave Miller, 916/972-2811 (Sacramento) John Britton, 619/237-2430 (San Diego/Orange County) |
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