Telex Video

With the 2018 issue of Australia, Telex Visual Telephony is now patented on 4 continents!

Telex will redefine how we communicate at a distance, bridging the old with the new, by blending the high reliability of the traditional phone system with real-time visual, interactive elements of the Internet. The Telex experience bridges the past as well, bringing personal service to isolated experience of remote shopping and other web applications— automatically!

At its core, Telex recreates personal privacy in a hostile Internet world! We believe a Telex session will be afforded the same privacy protections as a phone call, thanks to a 1920's bootlegger and a 1960's bookie.

Telex FAQs!

On June 29, 2018 we applied to TechCrunch Disrupt, San Francisco 2018. Their Q&A will serve nicely as as some initial FAQs:

Telex will redefine how we communicate at a distance, bridging the old with the new-- the high reliability of the traditional phone system with real-time visual, interactive elements of the Internet. Consumers simply phone into a shared-screen experience, similar to a webinar.

We are seeking key technology partners to exploit patent grants in 16 key countries, over 4 continents, including U.S. China, Australia, and most of western Europe. Funding may be sought in 2019.

 

WHY IS YOUR TEAM UNIQUELY SUITED TO BUILD THIS COMPANY? 

Telex is triggered by a toll-free call. We have 20+ years of experience in toll-free and Internet branding and strategy. In addition, we've served on the Somos User Group for 3 years and currently serving on the Public Policy committee. Somos is the national registry for toll-free numbers.

IN ONE SENTENCE-WHAT ARE YOU BUILDING?

Telex blends the phone with the Internet— human interaction with visual display—into a unified, retail experience.

WHAT PROBLEM ARE YOU SOLVING?

Retail commerce is either blind by phone or visual by Internet, but never both. We bring together the best of both worlds. In addition, phone calls are privacy-protected by law.

WHAT IS THE PRIMARY USE CASE YOU’RE SOLVING FOR?

We provide a virtual in-store, retail experience, but Telex can be applied to any business communication that can be enhanced with the visual display goods and services.

WHAT IS YOUR SOLUTION?

Telex is a patented innovation that allows callers to view visual content simply by dialing a toll-free number; you call, you see! Consumers call into a shared-screen experience, similar to a webinar. They need only a phone and browser.  Check out the True View app here. Just dial as you view!

The killer app is visual content, NOT video conferencing. Unlike Skype, FaceTime, and other services, Telex works off the public switch telephone network, which is ubiquitous.

WHO WANTS YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE?

Call centers and Retailers, especially those hard-hit by Amazon. Telex will empower them to compete with a superior retail experience.

IF LAUNCHED, WHAT IS CURRENT CUSTOMER FEEDBACK AND TESTIMONIAL ON THE PRODUCT? WHAT IS THE NPS?

Launching soon.

HOW DO YOU DISTRIBUTE YOUR PRODUCT/HOW DO USERS FIND OUT ABOUT YOU?

Initially direct to retail. We will hold in-person sessions in shopping districts like Union Square, Madison Ave, Magnificent Mile, Rodeo Drive, and others. Once proven, we'll hand-off sales to telecom resellers like AT&T, Verizon, and others for global distribution.

HOW DO YOU/WILL YOU MAKE MONEY?

Telex is an enhancement to traditional toll-free services, familiar to all. We're going to charge by the minute for visual, recorded sessions. Both consumers and retailers can access for later review. We'll own the core platform and make Telex available through participating telecommunication carriers.

WHO ARE YOUR BIGGEST COMPETITORS?

Verizon has competing patent, but has yet to launch visual telephony.  They would wise not to pursue this, however, simply because no other carrier will align with them. Further, our solution is superior in that it works on all phones, even pots lines (old analog phones). 

We see our primary competitor as Amazon. Like Amazon, Telex will hold user data and only share that with retailers on an as-needed basis, i.e. when orders are placed. Consumers will have one log-in across all participating retailers, world-wide.

WHY WILL YOU WIN AMONGST YOUR COMPETITION? WHAT MAKES YOU UNIQUE?

Telex provides a virtual in-store experience, superior to either the phone or the Internet alone.

HOW BIG IS YOUR INITIAL TARGET MARKET? YOUR TOTAL TARGET MARKET?

We don't have data on this, but toll-free services exist through-out the world. In the US, typical wholesale rates are a penny a minute. We're going to charge nine cents/minute for session time.  In addition, there's even a country code "800," set aside for global freephone calling. 

Why does toll-free matter anymore? Callers cannot block Caller ID when retailers pay for the calls. This is an essential feature, allowing us to match inbound callers with their log-in identity.

PLEASE SUMMARIZE YOUR TRACTION

We have a basic demo as you'll see in the video. By Disrupt 2018, we'll have a working beta version.

IS YOUR PRODUCT PROPRIETARY?

Yes.

IF YES, DO YOU HOLD A PATENT FOR YOUR IP

We are seeking key technology partners to exploit patent grants is 16 key countries over 4 continents, including U.S. China, Australia, and most of western Europe.

IF YES, PLEASE DESCRIBE HOW AND PROVIDE LINKS TO ANY APPLICABLE PATENTS

US Patent grant follows. Through European validations, the Telex patent was translated into German, French, Italian, and Spanish. We can provide links upon request. 

DO YOU PLAN TO RAISE CAPITAL? IF SO, WHAT ARE THE MILESTONES YOU ARE PLANNING TO ACHIEVE?

Funding anticipated in 2019. This year, we are seeking key technology partners to contribute their software and expertise. Perfect, then scale.

WILL YOU BE LAUNCHING SOMETHING ON STAGE AT THE STARTUP BATTLEFIELD?

If invited, we would participate in the competition. We signed up on June 28m, 2018, just beyond the formal deadline for the Battlefield.

WHAT WILL YOU BE LAUNCHING AT THE STARTUP BATTLEFIELD

Our beta version. What you'll see linked is our initial demo, not the beta version. When you pen the link, dial any of the numbers shown. Or, call me and we'll do it together, sharing the same screen. Reload after each call and note that 1-800-Go-Airport is 800-462-4776 (not "463")

Where's Our Video Phone?!

 I was amazed to learn that idea for a Video Phone predate's the word "video" itself, coined in 1935.

Within two years of the 1876 invention of telephone, a personal video phone known as a "telephonoscope" was conceptualized and popularized in the press. Such a device, it was asserted, would allow merchants to transmit pictures of their wares to customers in distant cities.

Alexander Graham Bell himself went on to predict that: "...the day would come when the man at the telephone would be able to see the distant person to whom he was speaking." Yet, for most of us, visual telephony is far from an everyday experience.

So where's our video phone?

The technology emerged by the 1920's that allowed television to be deployed. Inspired by radio and constrained by cost, television emerged as the one-to-many broadcast system we know today.

Video phone in its basic form first became a reality in prewar Germany, but was quickly shelved due to the conflict. AT&T deployed its one-to-one "Picturephone" in the 1960's and again in the 1990's, but the high cost and requirement that both parties use specialized equipment hampered adoption.

Business-grade video conferencing became available in the 1980's over the Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN), but required specialized equipment and high cost T-1 or ISDN connections at both ends. The PSTN has mostly been used to connect callers with human operators and to IVR systems, where callers are often frustrated by long waits associate with the serial presentation of audio selections.

With the advent of Internet in the 1990's, these services have all been re-imagined. Video conferencing systems are now available as IP-based systems but have mostly been displaced by Internet meeting services like Cisco WebEx, GoToMeeting, and Fuze Meeting in all but the high end of the market, where room-to-room "telepresence" systems endure. Video services like Skype, Facetime, and other visual services have been deployed to provide visual interaction and/or desktop sharing on a one-to-many and one-to-one basis.

All of these services bypass the PSTN as they are initiated and conducted by means of the IP-based network, often with a concurrent voice session where participants call-in and enter a "room number" to bridge into a conference call. Sessions are initiated either by entering an Internet address, clicking a link, or by the use of a proxy that connects two users from point to point over IP-based network.

Yet, the consistent reliably of a voice call and convenience of the PSTN dial-pad access endures. Most merchants promote both their Internet address to visually connect with their content servers, i.e. website, and their phone number to voice connect with a human operator over the PSTN.

In addition, merchants often present phone numbers on their websites and/or direct voice callers to the website address in their introductory announcements. For example, callers to Southwest Airlines will be greeted with the message "Lower fares may be found at Southwest.com." Current integration takes the form of an Internet chat session or click-to-call button, where consumers are connected by voice via a VOIP session or can initiate a call back over the PSTN.

Most telephone applications are limited to voice and touchtone telephony communications. When dynamic, interactive visual content is desired in real time, consumers use the Internet, where visual information is robust but neither synchronized to the automated telephone application nor visible to a sales agent.

A typical sales inquiry typically includes a phone call where the agent instructs the hapless consumer to click to the relevant section of the merchants website to "see" the product and features being discussed. Or, if the voice call is initiated by the consumer, the consumer is left to describe where they are in the merchants website so the agent may catch up and follow along. Either may become a frustrating experience.

Finally, the PSTN is slated to become IP-based and, with that, visual telephony services like video conferencing and content sharing will become inherent in the IP platform. Indeed, in late 2011 the FCC held its first workshop to explore this topic entitled the "THE PUBLIC SWITCHED TELEPHONE NETWORK (PSTN) IN TRANSITION."

Yet, concerns over public safety, disability access, and rural access will slow the transition to an IP-based phone system, and there is currently no clear path forward.

So, where's our Video Phone? Will it require some eNum-bo-Jumbo? Will it work with Grandma's home phone? Stay tuned.... It's closer than you think!

Believe. You can!