vB Easy Archive - How can a business get a *star or #pound line?

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How can a business get a *star or #pound line?
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Posted by: Hello?

Greetings!

I've called CS for all the big 4 Canadian companies (Bell, Telus, Rogers and Microcell) and no one has been able to transfer me to the right department, most have no clue what a * or # number even is! What I want is a star or pound line for customers to call my business, kind of like *CAA (Bell & Rogers) or #TAXI (Rogers only), but for my business. Who do I contact?

Sure, Rogers owns many stations and therefore all Rogers stations have starlines on Rogers phones, but these same stations also have it on Bell.

Also, I've heard ads for alarm companies with star and pound lines, so I figure its available to any business who wants it, obviously for a fee.

Who do I contact?

Thanks!

Posted by: Her.ph

The impression I have is that the *123 numbers apply only to one (of several) carrier's phones. Meaning, if 50% of population carries a phone, and that is divided equally among 4 carriers, each carrier covers 12.5% of population. So if Rogers has *TAXI set to go to "Yellow Cab", then that only helps about 1 in 8 people!

I'm thinking that if I were Rogers, or Cingular or whatever, then I would offer those numbers for free, and hope that *TAXI uses it in their advertising (which is in some respects an ad for Rogers, etc.)

Besides, getting such a number would probably require a long-term commitment, because the calls would still keep rolling in long after the advertising was done. I would think the prime consideration is
a) how big/established the business is;
b) what % of population would need to use it each year.

Posted by: Okigire

Who did you try calling when you tried to look at getting one of those special *xxx lines? I'm sure somebody at the corporate level would know.

I'm sure there would be some fee. If none else, you'd have to pay the massive number of minutes/airtime that is used up.

Whatever the case, when you find out... let us know. I'm sure many of us are interested (atleast I am).

Posted by: james

have you ever tried that on a gsm phone before? it seems that they do not accept star numbers....

Posted by: Okigire

I believe Fido has *46 for it's pre-paid users and *222 or something for CAA.

...does anybody know of any (others?) and/or if they work on Cityfone?