Unit 7 Telecommunication

7 Telecommunications
The telephone is one of the most important means of communicating with the outside world. It is also frequently used for contacting members of staff within an organisation.
7.1 The advantages of telephone communications
The telephone has a number of advantages:
• The most important is the speed with which people can be contacted and the ease of use.
• It allows instant feedback and is considerably more personal than written correspondence such as letters or emails.
• Short telephone calls are generally cheaper than postal services and many people now have answering machines, which can also be useful (although email is usually cheaper still).
• Calling an office which has an answering machine has the advantage that callers

Some phones sometimes have premium phone numbers and therefore higher charges are made. Organisations will therefore try to ensure that these are not used, whether for personal or business services, unless there is a good reason to use them.
Most organisations will allow staff to use the office phone for urgent calls such as medical appointments. However, since phone bills can be itemised some organisations may simply ask for payment for phone messages which have been made above a certain price.
7.4 Knowledge of local codes
Each city or area in the United Kingdom has its own national code for landlines. London is unusual in having two separate codes 0207 and 0208 depending upon whether the phone is in inner or outer London.
On the other hand, the increasing use of mobiles means that people do not know the area the call has come from. This is important for many small firms where in many cases they receive almost as many incoming sales calls which are not necessarily going to be as helpful as calls from potential

One of the irritating features however, particularly when having to phone expensive lines, such as 0845 numbers is to hear the same patter at any time of day or night saying we are experiencing an unusually high volume of calls which may lead listeners to wonder why in this case they don't just employ more staff.
7.8 The use of call display
Call display is useful anyway, since for smaller firms in particular not everyone leaves a message on an answer phone and it is therefore possible to check who has been calling while people have been out of the office. It is possible for people to withhold their number if they so wish, so that call display is not a guarantee that one can phone back if calls have been missed. The call display shows the time at which people called as well as the telephone number from which they are calling unless the person has withheld their number.
7.9 Last caller phone numbers
In the UK generally it is possible to dial 1471 to check who the last caller was. This can be very useful if for any reason somebody has been cut off, which still happens.
7.10 Mobile phone