Invention Turned Nuisance

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Before the mid-1980s – primitive, analog telephone sets without displays were used for voice communications between friends, family, and businesses. 

People did not know who was calling them and why. 

Company personnel receiving phone calls had to inquire and validate who was calling by going through many security steps.  
 

Placing outbound phone calls to its customers, the company’s agents wasted large amounts of time having to listen to busy, no answer, and bad/changed phone number type signals and announcements.  
 

On average, a company’s customer service personnel were wasting over 85 percent of their time. Businesses had to employ lots of extra personnel due to these high inefficiencies. It all changed forever with the introduction of CallerID and advanced Call Center solutions. 

Here you'll learn the origin of outbound dialing, initially for emergency dispatching, and its unintended consequences.

Alek's frustration as his technology is hijacked for unsolicited marketing purposes, and the rise of robotexts and robocalls is a major annoyance in today's telecommunications landscape.

Here is the story...   

FUN FACTS -

Before we get started let's see how much you already know about Caller ID.

Caller ID and your phone number are two different things.  

Caller ID is a line of text (usually your or business name) that shows up on your phone when you receive an incoming call. 

(Note: Landline telephones had no displays until the late 80's) 

Caller ID is just there to help people find out who’s calling.  

Your phone number is basically the “address” of your phone. It tells your carrier where to connect you, or in the case when the cellular phone is used,  where to direct the SMS.  

Turning off Caller ID does not hide your phone number. It just forces the receiving person's Caller ID-capable phone to only display your phone number.  

Caller ID is not sent with text messages, it only works with voice calls. If you were able to hide your phone numbers from SMS messages, it would basically make the conversation a one-way conversation. The recipient’s phone wouldn’t know  where to send the message, because it wouldn’t be able to identify the phone sending the messages  

How'd you do? Back to the story!

The Origin

Alek founded and incorporated Melita Electronic Labs, Inc., in 1979 using his sister Melita's name as he engaged her husband Ben Feldgajer to assist with testing the very first innovative dialer Alek created. 

It was during 1978, when an assistant professor at Ga Tech, John Lukas arrived at Alek's apartment with an answering machine, requesting he modify it, thus allowing the machine to make outgoing calls. 

Alek told him such was not possible due to the electro-mechanical, mostly passive components upon which the machine was built. He suggested he would build such a phone dialing system from scratch using a microprocessor and other components, allowing for programmability by users. 

As such, an 'Expedialer' was born, and John would sell these initially to furniture distribution centers for scheduling delivery appointments.

That was the beginning of technology, which through many innovations transformed into Call Center solutions, and Melita International became a public company that Bloomberg would one day say is "A Friend to Tele-Marketers."  

Following remarkable success in 1980 with the Compudialer™ installation (fully automated outbound calling solution) at the Wisconsin Emergency Notification Center and a customizable automated political solicitation system in Tennessee, Alek soon ventured out on his own...

The Next Step

Determined to maximize returns on his Intellectual properties, he embarked on a plan to reach utility companies across the US. Halina and Alek began a massive mailout program, despite lacking marketing experience, Looking back, they couldn't help but smile at their rookie mistake of licking stamps and envelopes instead of using a sponge.

Undeterred, armed with potential customer leads from the mailouts, they persevered and reached numerous potential customers.

By May 1982, driven by determination and intuition, Alek took a bold step and left Lockheed to pursue his vision, knowing it was a risk. 

"We had little to rely on financially, with only $6K in savings from my kids' account to support us."

After thoughtful discussions, Ben and Alek crafted a formal separation agreement, allocating assets and IP, as Ben chose to remain at Lockheed for financial security.

During those months leading up to 1982, creativity blossomed. Alek redesigned Expedialer placing the electronic assembly in an attrative custom fabricated enclosure while separating audio cassettes in an enclosure sitting on top. 

The main electronic board with a microprocessor, memory, interfaces, and telecom circuits became the foundation for our future products, later known as Sprintel® and FoneFrame. 

Halina and Alek created an eye-catching multi-color brochure and continued with mailouts.

In late 1982, while engaging TV voice talent at a recording studio for audio recordings, Alek met Mike Domer who later paved the way for a promising reseller relationship. The Sprintel system's unique features captured his interest, and after mutual discussions, we reached a beneficial agreement.

With newfound momentum, in January of 1983, Melita leased a space in an industrial office park, setting up offices and a lobby. Together, they made the initial investment of $6,000 to kickstart the business. 

Later, a financial agreement with Mike Dormer provided important initial funding for the development and production of the Sprintel system.

You Most Likely Didn't Know This

As they immersed themselves in creating the Sprintel system, they encountered challenges. 

Chester Quinn, one of the first employees, despite a unique eye disease, proved to be an extraordinary genius with software programming. At one point, he experienced a mental crisis which delayed his development for several weeks. 

Alek had to re-explain to him the entire 8080 assembly programming instructions, compile code, and go over and review previous programs, but eventually, it all worked out. In time, addressing Los Angeles Unified School District's requirements, Melita's engineering team invented a way to record and playback audio messages in 40 languages, recorded using 4 magnetic, 30-60-second loop tapes. They worked tirelessly, at times until 2-3 a.m., with each success inspiring them to keep pushing forward.

Throughout the journey, the team remained steadfast and excited, even during the early mornings, fueled by their passion and vision for innovative solutions.

"Looking back, every step, every decision, and every challenge shaped our path to building something exceptional, and we are excited to continue this aspirational journey of making a meaningful impact with our groundbreaking technologies," says Alek.