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“Hello honey! I’ll pamper you for hours». This or something similar is the usual promise in many phone sex numbers.
In the 1990s, over 100,000 Swiss dialed a toll 156 number every day. PTT, the ancestor of today’s Swisscom, opened its “phone booth” on October 1, 1991. Paid eroticism soon became part of the PTT offering.
A bomb deal for everyone
Recently retired erotic entrepreneur Patrik Stöckli (65) sensed a “bombing business” and launched the first phone sex lines 14 days after the phone booth was introduced. “It was a good job, not just for me, but also for PTT or Blick,” Stöckli said in an interview with Blick.
Back then, the Blick newspaper was making around CHF 500,000 per month from phone sex ads alone. The PTT earned a kind of “commission” on the lines and for the collection. Stöckli calculates for Blick: “I usually asked for 2 francs per minute. The PTT collected the money from the telephone customers and transferred 70-75 percent of my debt to me as the provider of the 156 number.» Stockli no longer knows exactly how much.
Despite service cuts and line costs, a lot of money remained. “At the summit, I recruited 50 women who handled a total of 124 phone lines,” says Stöckli.
Big moans in Wollerau
Stöckli had eleven separate offices in his own company building in Wollerau SZ alone. In each of these, an employee monitored 10 phone lines. “We offered so-called chat boxes on certain sex topics,” says Stöckli. A woman could look at an entire group at once.
Stöckli confirms the stereotype that women knit or read while moaning lustfully into the phone. Even if there were explanations for this before: This did not dampen the imagination of the callers.
humble beginnings
Before the PTT launched the telekios, Stöckli already had the idea of having phone sex. He first recorded the erotic content on tape and played it on special numbers when someone called.
“It was like fairy tale time for grown-ups, although everything was ‘handglismet’, it got it right from the start,” Stöckli laughs. Problems arose because he had to send an invoice. Callers often did not pay. “They claimed they didn’t,” says Stöckli.
This issue did not apply to number 156, which quickly became a “phone sex area code” within the telekiosk. PTT collected the telephone debt. Sex addicts and occasional seekers squandered thousands of francs, sometimes at the expense of employers or acquaintances.
Based on an article, Stöckli realized the potential and immediately started with 24 lines. The business developed immediately.
authorities dampers
Only the authorities made trouble. As early as 1993, the Federal Council wanted to mandate those who submit erotic offerings to protect children and youth. Without much effect: “I’ve never had to work with a password,” explains Stöckli.
Only the Zurich prosecutor at the time caused major problems by demanding high fines for the illegality of the business. Stöckli actually had to pay a hefty fine and then stopped his phone sex business. According to him, this was “about five years” after the start of the phone sex operation. “The phone sex business is back as quickly as it came,” she explains.
In 1997, the number 156 was phased out and replaced by numbers starting with 0906. Despite the abundance of pornography, offers of phone sex still exist today. Nobody makes millions with this these days.
Stockli recognized the signs of time. In the late 90’s he had been making his money from the erotic market for a long time.
Source :Blick
I’m Tim David and I work as an author for 24 Instant News, covering the Market section. With a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism, my mission is to provide accurate, timely and insightful news coverage that helps our readers stay informed about the latest trends in the market. My writing style is focused on making complex economic topics easy to understand for everyone.
