When discussing the delivery of information via telephone, virtually every aspect of the service has security implications. Although you may have many more questions, what follows is a brief discussion related to some of the security aspects of telecommunications, voice processing, order- taking, and pay-per-call programs.

The security of the physical network should always be considered. Since we employ the services of the two largest U.S. telecommunications carriers for our inbound call processing, AT&T and MCI, we expect and maintain the highest reliability possible. Although many service providers would consider that enough, we maintain two separate terminating points and accounts for each of those carriers. Using a network feature named call allocator, we can reassign terminations for numbers at a moment's notice in the event of a catastrophe such as a natural disaster in any part of the country.

The reliability of the equipment is assured because we employ the two top switch providers in the world - Northern Telecom and Lucent technologies. With terminating facilities in more than one location and more than one high quality switch available for routing calls, our EasyLine 900TM and other services continue without interruption, no matter what the circumstances.

No equipment can perform its design functions without power. Our switches are equipped with emergency generators - and so are our Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems. Redundant or backup air conditioning systems, with separate cooling towers, ensure that equipment operates at peak efficiency.

Besides ensuring what is supposed to happen, we spend considerable time and resources making sure that other things don't happen. We routinely back up voice files, including off-premises archiving, to preserve the integrity of valuable customer scripts and voice prompts. We regularly update our files containing over 1,000,000 callers who are blocked from access to pay-per-call programs due to a history of non-payment. Each IVR program is passcode protected, to prevent unauthorized access to call counts or voice files. Customer orders are promptly and regularly removed from the system to protect the credit card information and customer identities.

And finally, the physical security, power systems, and temperature conditions at all sites we maintain for our IVR systems and those sites we maintain for customers, are tied into a monitoring and alarm system that will automatically notify key personnel if any system or site needs attention.