PC Phone: Telephony Cards Are Smarter

Dave Andrews

The Windows 95 version of the AT&T Computer Telephone 8130 hints at the benefits of PC telephony, but it lacks capabilities you get with add-in telephony cards. The hardware/software combination ($199) includes a two-line speakerphone, which connects to your PC's serial port and works over regular phone lines but will not integrate with a PBX; and Windows 95 software, which provides functions such as contact management, logging of incoming and outgoing calls, and Caller ID.

Three advantages of the system are immediately apparent: It's easier to program the phone (e.g., time/date) using the Windows software rather than the phone's buttons, the logging feature helps keep track of the time I spend with individual contacts, and the software's Caller ID feature automatically displays information on an incoming call. A more subtle advantage the AT&T 8130 has over add-in telephony cards is that you can use the phone even when your PC is not running, although most of the telephone features are disabled in stand-alone mode.

However, I wish the software provided features such as the ability to set up password-protected voice-mail boxes, which cards like Boca Research's SoundExpression 28.8 offer. The AT&T Computer Telephone requires you to buy a separate answering machine. Since the phone is, for many businesses, the primary interface to customers, you may prefer to project a more professional image by presenting your customers with several options for leaving messages.

The 8130 phone works with Symantec's Act for Windows, which is also available for Hewlett-Packard hand-held computers and, soon, for the Psion Series 3A. The combination of a telephony-enabled Act with the ability to fit those same contacts onto a hand-held computer could be quite intriguing to those folks who make a lot of sales calls from their home/office and from the road.

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PRODUCT INFORMATION

AT&T Computer Telephone 8130...........$199
 (includes phone and software)
AT&T Consumer Products
Parsippany, NJ
(800) 233-2650
dspecht@attmail.com
Circle 989 on Inquiry Card.

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AT&T Computer Telephone 8130

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Adequate But Needs Improvement

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