Mechanizing the customer access to network trouble reporting operations

A mechanized process is proposed for providing customers with direct telephone access to network trouble-reporting operations. The manual process is contrasted with the proposed mechanized process, which offers significant potential for savings and operational improvements. A laboratory testbed has been used to help identify the necessary system functions, a workable system architecture, and the voice response technologies that are suitable for this application, now and in the future. It is shown that digitized recorded human voice and dual-tone multifrequency detection are excellent technologies for this purpose and can be expected to result in a high level of customer acceptance