CMP.WERNER@R20.UTEXAS.EDU (Werner Uhrig) (12/17/85)
RE: From: ihnp4!kitty!larry@ucbvax.berkeley.edu Subject: Re: digital readout of the caller's phone number There is no possible motivation for an operating telephone company to install apparatus in its CO to make calling party identification available to subscribers - even if the information were available. -------------------- "Money makes the world go 'round, the world go 'round, ....." Chorus: "Money-money-money-money ...." [ Larry, I did appreciate your posting, but couldn't deny myself this quip.] PS: I, for one, WANT ALL CALLS to be identifiable and pray for the technology to become available. I'd even go so far as to make identification a precondition before even answering the phone. Others can US-mail me. I think the public (through PUCs) should start demanding MORE service for the SAME money (rather than what we are getting: LESS for MORE) given the sinking cost of communications. I do think that local phone and cable service should be "nationalized" or "communalized", paid for through mortgages like many construction related expenses. The actual running and servicing of the services the community wants to make available should be subcontracted, and many services (like LD-calls) can be obtained from competing vendors. WHY, you ask? because that's the only way to get the benefit of the capability of the new technology without getting taken to the cleaners by cable and phone companies. Ok, ok, it's neither easy nor always possible to make "public services" available as cheap as from "competitive privat sources". But in this case .... -------