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Comment by sva_ | Hacker News Reader

>There was a single response that was present in 1074 answered calls (91% of all interesting answers) and that waits for the caller to interact with itself. It says “Tervetuloa palveluun” (Welcome to the service) followed by repeating “Anna tunnusluku” (Please give access code). The machine does not give any hint of what kind of service it is.

I wonder whats that about.

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It appears to be a service offered by http://elisa.fi

The excerpt from the manual[1], translated to English.

  Call the number __________________________
   You will hear the bulletin “Welcome to the service”
   You will hear the message “Enter the passcode”

http://esco.elisa.fi/rest/esco/blob/yritysten-asiakastuki/Va...

Back in the day, you'd have to ring up or write (using stamps) to get the user manuals. Or dumpster dive, which the one time we tried it kinda sucked since we expected manuals but got all the pass-codes instead which ended the game.

Google “Tervetuloa palveluun” “Anna tunnusluku” see where it leads. You'll need Google translate as you get into it.

My first thought (influenced heavily by Hollywood) was that it was some kind of assassin or other criminal service. You call in, give the correct pass phrase and someone tells you where to get your vacuum repaired locally (if you know what I mean).

Sounds like a dial-in meetings system maybe?

Quite possibly calling cards or conference lines. Recording voice prompts is "hard" so many just try to make due with the included prompts in asterix/freeswitch.

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