The Self-Dispatch services are of particular use when a given office, site, or building's internet connection is down or otherwise fails, and allows servers, equipment, and/or alarm systems an alternate path utilizing regular phone lines to send out status messages, emergency alerts, and other messages to first responders, on-call staff, or other personnel immediately, bypassing the internet, to allow for a rapid response. For companies and entities which use a Voice-over-IP phone system, the Self-Dispatch services may be used to notify repair staff via a non-VoIP phone line that an outage has occurred and requires attention to restore telephone service to offices or buildings with VoIP telephone service.
Interpage's Self-Dispatch services integrate with a wide variety of alert and monitoring equipment/systems, building automation systems, and industrial control equipment from many vendors, including Johnson Controls/Metasys, Trane Building Controls, York Heating and Air-Conditioning Systems, and many others, to provide a robust and redundant notification regime to alert from one to hundreds of recipients of status changes, alarm conditions, alerts, and other situations requiring monitoring or immediate attention.
Verizon Wireless, AT&T Wireless, T-Mobile, and Rogers/Cantel customers who utilized their respective carrier's (now discontinued) TAP (modem) dispatch service may continue to do so with Interpage as a replacement TAP/self-dispatch provider via either the "TAP/self-dispatch" service plan (detailed below) or the Alarm/Equipment TAP/DTMF Access service based on the features and access methods required. Questions regarding how either above dispatch services can replace the discontinued Verizon, T-Mobile and/or ATT Wireless TAP services (or for TAP access to other carriers in the US, Canada, or worldwide) may be directed to +1 (510) 315-2750 or use the Interpage Online Inquiry page to submit questions about your firm's specific application.
(Note: The Interpage TAP Gateway receives messages generated by centers and equipment which send out via the modem-based TAP protocol and serves as a unified dispatch center to all cellular carriers, paging systems, email, and are typically not connected to the Internet, or require a backup/failover to alert staff when internet connectivity fails. For customers who require a gateway to send messages from internet-connected servers and other internet-based applications, please see the Messaging/Paging Gateway overview, the Fax Gateway main page, or the OutVoice voice notification service page instead).
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Overview of Interpage Self-Dispatch Services
Interpage TAP/IXO Self-Dispatch Services allow for the integration between legacy, non-internet connected services and devices, such as Call Centers, Operator Dispatch and Messaging Services, Automated Alarm and Indistrial Control Equipment, Co-Op Services (such as car washes and laundromats), and/or any application where TAP messages are sent by modem for dispatch.
Besides traditional TAP/modem dispatch services, where a sigle PIN or Pager ID can message one pager, Interpage's TAP Dispatch Service optionally offers an intelligent, database-driven dispatch center which, when a message is received, can automatically transmit the received message to one or more end devices, such as cellphones via SMS, legacy pagers, e-mail or fax to a supervisory account for quality control, and even call recipients with clear, automated voice transcription of received messages to assure that an alarm or critical message is received and acknowledged.
Interpage's TAP gateway simplifies notifications and saves time and dialout attempts as one page to Interpage can result in multiple messages, pages, and other notifications being immediately sent to an array of different devices, optionally filtered by time of day, day of the week, or content/urgency. Instead of having to create an entire hierarchy of notifications and then have a given dispatch center, equipment, or alarm system send out notifications to each recipient (which can consume time and delay the receipt of critical messages, especially if one of the recipients is busy, or for some other can not accept the message), Interpage's TAP Notification Gateway will send out messages simultaneously, reducing the time it takes to have alerts received, and freeing the sender from having to maintain multiple telephone lines in order to ensure timely delivery.
Critical equipment or "Fail-Safe" data centers can utilize the TAP Notification Gateway to facilitate non-"Internet"/non-TCP/IP based connectivity to Interpage's paging, e-mail, fax and/or Voice/Text-to-Speech gateway services. Such access is typically useful for redundant emergency notification, legacy equipment which use Touch Tone or modem notification, operator dispatch services, remote monitoring equipment, and any other automated service which messages via TAP or Touch Tone/DTMF.
(For customers who also need Touch Tone (DTMF/paging-like) messaging, an integrated package of TAP (modem) dispatch and Touch Tone access with multiple PINs, pager IDs, local TAP and DTMF access numbers, online-scheduling/filtering, and more is available through the Alarm Equipment Monitoring/Messaging service.)
Self-Dispatch services provide a critical link for offices, servers and server co-locators, buildings, and factories with automated status or alarm equipment with a non-internet based means to alert on-call staff in the event of an internet connectivity failure. Interpage's self-dispatch services do not rely on an Internet connection and thus provide a vital link in situations where an internet connection has failed (or is simply not available) for alerting on-call staff and emergency-response employees on their cellphones, pagers, email, fax, and voice telephones (via OutVoice).
Messages dispatched to Interpage via TAP/IXO (or Touch Tone/DTMF via Interpage's DirectPage Service) can be distributed by the Interpage Scheduler (for a demo, log in as guest and leave the password blank), which allows customers to have their TAP and/or Touch Tone messages sent to a variety of end devices, such as pagers, cellphones, fax, Text to Speech, and/or email addresses. The Scheduler and Filtration interface uses simple HTML formatting, no scripting, and no special plug-ins or downloads are needed, and can be accessed from older browsers and (non-"smart") mobile phones as well as from all modern browsers and internet devices.
Both the modem-based TAP and the Touch Tone-based numeric/DTMF services can be used as replacements for recent shutdowns of cellular based TAP/modem access from Verizon Wireless, AT&T Wireless, T-Mobile et. al., as well as the removal of the "numeric paging" services from Sprint/Nextel, Verizon, and others, allowing customers to keep their current wireless provider and continue to utilize their wireless phones and devices as if the given carrier had maintained TAP and/or Touch Tone/paging access.
TAP/IXO Port Access Plans and Pricing
TAP/IXO Gateway: TAP to EMail/SMS - Use your modem or server with TAP or IXO protocol software to dispatch pages, e-mails, fax messages, and/or voice messages to one or more recipients. Emergency response departments, 24 hour "on-call" personnel, and other services which require an alternate to Internet access via dialup may benefit from Interpage's TAP/IXO Gateway to facilitate the dissemination of time-critical messages when Internet connectivity is down or otherwise inoperative.
TAP Self-Dispatch recipients may be up to 10 email addresses, Cellphones/SMS, Alpha and Numeric pagers, international mobile phones, and even POTS (voice) telephones and cellphones which lack text-messaging capabilities via the OutVoice text-to-speech notification service. The Interpage TAP/IXO Gateway is configurable from the Web and/or Telnet, and messages may be redirected instantly via any Interpage delivery method. (Additional destinations may be purchased in blocks of 10 and/or via additional PIN/PagerIDs.)
The TAP EMail/SMS modem dispatch service can be used as a more robust alternative to those offered (or which had been offered) by major wireless and paging carriers, delivering messages to cellular phones and pages, and offering filtering and scheduling of received messages and the ability to direct them to multiple destinations (including US/Canadian and International smart/cellphones, Alpha and Numeric-only pagers, fax, email and voice-only telephones), based on time-of-day, day of the week, and/or content.
A demonstration of the Web-based "scheduler" is available here; please log in as guest and leave the password blank. You may also connect via telnet to interpage.net, log in as guest, and select option 6 from the main menu.
The following TAP/IXO Gateway access plans are available:Company-branded TAP access plans with custom domains and other special configuration options are also available; please contact Interpage for details and pricing.TAP/IXO 001: $10 per month, with a one-time $50 set-up fee; received messages are billed at 5 cents per message. Only one cellphone or pager may be used with this plan, and customers of the TAP/IXO 001 plan do not have access to the Interpage Scheduler or filter untility to add/modify multiple recipients, send to e-mail addresses, fax, or voice telephones. Any changes requested to the destination cellular phone or pager are billed at $5 per change. Local access numbers are not available with plan 001.
TAP/IXO 001-L: $10 per month, with a one-time $50 set-up fee; received messages are billed at 25 cents per message. Messages may be sent up to 5 non-cellphone, non-SMS e-mail addresses only. Any changes to destination e-mail adresses are billed at $5 per change; there is no access to the Interpage Scheduler. Local access numbers are not available with plan 001-L.
TAP/IXO 002: $50 per month, with a one-time $50 set-up fee; 2500 messages per month are included, after which each additional message is billed at 10 cents. Full access to the Interpage Scheduler and messsage filtration interface, as well as the ability to specifiy up to 10 messaging recipients and destinations via cellphone, pager, fax, email or voice telephone. Each TAP/IXO 002 account accepts messages from up to five different offices or office campuses, allowing for different alert messages for a given office or zone within an office campus or group of offices, factories, plants, etc. Multiple PINs/PagerIDs and destinations/routings are available and configurable via web (and telnet). Multiple local numbers and wide-area local numbers are available; price varies based on location.
TAP/IXO 003: Dedicated/Custom-Branded access; $100 per month, with a one-time $100 set-up fee; 2500 messages per month are included, after which each additional message is billed at 5 cents. In addition to all of TAP/IXO plan 002's features, TAP/IXO 003 offers customer-specific, customized messages, as well as a dedicated (non-shared) access number. Like the TAP/002 plan, multiple local numbers and wide-area local numbers are available.
TAP/IXO 004: Unlimited use TAP access; $250 per month, with a one-time $250 set-up fee; dedicated access and customized messages are included. Usage is unlimited/umetered - TAP/IXO 004 customers may send as many messages as needed to up to 10 messaging recipients and destinations via the TAP gateway with no metering or per-use charges. All TAP/IXO 002 filters, rules, scheduling and other similar features are included in the 004 plan.
TAP Test and Uptime Monitoring
TapTest TAP/IXO Accessibility Test Service: TapTest is a specialized self-dispatch service which regularly checks one or more given TAP/IXO access numbers, modems, or entire modem banks, to ensure that they are operating and able to accept submissions via TAP. Cellular and Paging Carriers, Hospitals, Goverment Agencies, Public Safety, Corporate Campuses, and any operator of TAP-based services may use TapTest to ensure that any outages or problems are immediately reported to on-call staff before their customers and/or people who need to send vital messages discover an outage or problem, helping any company's or institution's image of dependable reliability.
Additionally, large customers of Cellular or Paging Carriers, those who dispatch to hospitals with private/in-house paging systems, or any group/entity which sends TAP messages to one or more carriers/recipients, may utilize the TapTest service to ensure that their carrier, paging service, or messaging recipient is operational and able to accept messages.
The TapTest page provides more detailed information and pricing on the TapTest service to ensure your TAP/IXO messaging platform is operational at all times!
Contacts
To receive additional information about Interpage's Paging and Dispatch Services, please contact us via:
Web-based Support/Inquiry Interface
Telephone: +1 (650) 331-3900
Interpage Contacts Page
We will be happy to answer any questions you may have concerning Interpage's TAP/IXO, Touch Tone integration, Paging, or other services!
Last modified 08/30/2022
