I was intrigued by this notice on a Queens payphone. The bottom line reads: “Dial *22 For Free: News-Stocks-Sports-Weather-Entertainment-Travel & More”:

I picked up the phone, dialed *22, I yelled the word “NEWS!” and sure enough I heard a recorded summary of the day’s top headlines (from ABC News). Then I heard the in-game score for an in-progress NFL football game, I was able to access a few stock quotes, driving directions from New York City to Las Vegas, and I heard a New York City weather forecast.

On most payphones dialing *22 either allows you to place a collect call, or it connects you to a payphone complaint line where you can report a problem with the phone. I don’t think I have ever seen *22 used for anything else on a payphone, and I found its use as a shortcut to an information portal to be excellent, if a little strange. It was mystifying to me at first, finding all this quality content available in a format that appeared to be directed toward payphone users, and which appeared to be available exclusively through a very small number of payphones.

When I called again later I discovered that the service is Tellme, a voice-activated information product powered by Bing and owned by Microsoft. The service did identify itself but I didn’t catch it the first time I phoned because traffic noise drowned out the opening seconds of the call.

I never thought I would say this about a voice-activated product, but Tellme is pretty awesome. I say this as someone who utterly loathes talking to computers and navigating through directory trees by yelling words into a telephone. Usually I use my instincts to bypass the use of voice commands by guessing which number on the keypad corresponds to a desired option, but once in a while I have to impugn my human dignity and start talking to the cyborg.

For all the pre-emptive dismay I was therefore surprised to find that Tellme did not bother me as much as similar services. The reason is pretty simple: it works, and it works way better than any comparable product I’ve used. Tellme catches my misspeaks, it figured out what I meant to say, and at times it almost felt like it read my mind.

So what’s my complaint about Tellme? I’ll Tellyou. Payphone users are blocked from calling this fabulous service. This I honestly do not understand. The service is commercial, it is supported by advertising, and it is clearly of general interest to everybody — even us payphone users. In fact I’d suggest that payphone users and folks without access to smartphones and information-everywhere gadgets would have a special interest in the opportunity to access some of the services offered through Tellme.

Nothing doing, though, unless you happen to find one of these specially-programmed payphones.

This payphone is owned by Telelink Communications. The Tellme service is normally reached by calling toll-free: 1-800-BING-411 (1-800-246-4411). The only reason I reached Tellme from this payphone is because Telelink Communications programmed the *22 workaround. As far as I know Telelink’s payphones are the only ones in town which allow access to Tellme and 1-800-BING-411. Attempting to call 1-800-BING-411 from any other brand of payphone returns a snooty-sounding message saying “Please try your call again from a non-payphone.” This also gives the lie to the Bing 411 Web Site, which claims their audio service is available “on any phone” in the United States. It is not.

I did attempt to contact Microsoft to ask WTH, but after a couple of attempts to get the question through to a human being I quickly realized I’d entered an endless loop of automaton-powered customer service replies.

This may not be intentional on Microsoft’s part, but the best reason I can find for banning payphone users from 1-800-BING-411 is that maybe we just don’t monetize very well. The service includes several hooks where callers are invited to enter their cell phone number or approve the sending of follow-up text messages and other information. You can’t really do that effectively from a payphone. Or maybe they use Caller ID to collect the numbers of people who call BING-411 with some intention of calling them back. Most payphones do not accept incoming calls, so gathering those phone numbers would be unproductive for such a pursuit. That doesn’t really make any sense, though, since the service is reachable via Skype, and from phones which block Caller ID.

Payphone users are permitted to call a competing service: 1-800-FREE-411. That product is perfectly fine on its own merits, and perhaps worthy of a separate review like this one, but Tellme is far superior.

It seems unfortunate, but more than that it seems puzzling that Tellme and 1-800-BING-411 are unreachable from most payphones. Maybe it is an oversight, or maybe it is the result of a calculated corporate decision making process. Whatever the case, I do enjoy checking in on Tellme when I spot one of these Telelink payphones.