[sci.electronics] Information about Answering Machine

gordon@prls.UUCP (Gordon Vickers) (03/11/89)

>In article <1467@PSUECLB> was@psueclb.BITNET writes:
>>    I have interest to buy an answering machine which has the
>>capability to display the incoming telephone number before I pick
>>up the phone receiver.
>
In article <3623@mit-amt> pshen@atrp.media.mit.edu (Paul Shen) writes:
>	There isn't such a product and it also will never be on the
>market, if we keep on the current telephone system.
>

      Some phone companies will soon (if not already) be offering a
    device that will attatch to your phone and display the phone
    number of the originating party.
      I read of this several months ago and more recently read that
    Pacific Bell will be testing the new service in the San Fransisco
    area.
      Pacific Bell's plan sounds like the one I read about months ago;
       -There will be an additional charge for the feature plus
           the cost of buying the display unit.
       -There will be an addition charge/service for those who DON'T
           want THEIR number displayed on these devices.  :-)

      If you can be patient for a couple of more years, my opinion is
    that you may then be able to get an answering machine with this feature.

      I've notice Pacific Bell on USENET before, maybe one of their users
    monitors this newsgroup and would be willing to provide more specifics.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gordon Vickers 408/991-5370 (Sunnyvale,Ca); {mips|pyramid|philabs}!prls!gordon
Every extinction, whether animal, mineral, or vegetable, hastens our own demise.

john@anasaz.UUCP (John Moore) (03/12/89)

In article <3623@mit-amt> pshen@atrp.media.mit.edu (Paul Shen) writes:
]In article <1467@PSUECLB> was@psueclb.BITNET writes:
]>    I have interest to buy an answering machine which has the
]>capability to display the incoming telephone number before I pick
]>up the phone receiver.
]
]	There isn't such a product and it also will never be on the
]market, if we keep on the current telephone system.

	In some areas of the East Coast, you can now get ANI (automatic
number identification) service by paying a service charge and buying
a ~$40 box to display caller's number. As ISDN is installed (already
available at many residences here in Phoenix), this service is automatic -
part of the ISDN protocol includes the caller's number.

	There have been some privacy flames about this in the news
media, so its possible that ANI will be outlawed.

[so... when will they outlaw telephone solicitors??? ]
-- 
John Moore (NJ7E)           mcdphx!anasaz!john asuvax!anasaz!john
(602) 861-7607 (day or eve) 
The opinions expressed here are obviously not mine, so they must be
someone else's. :-)

hingston@Apple.COM (Joe Hingston) (03/12/89)

Joe Hingston            "A screaming comes across the sky"
Apple Computer, Inc.
(hingston@apple.com)
These views are my own, and do not necessarily reflect those of Apple.

henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (03/12/89)

In article <19858@prls.UUCP> gordon@prls.UUCP (Gordon Vickers) writes:
>>>    I have interest to buy an answering machine which has the
>>>capability to display the incoming telephone number before I pick
>>>up the phone receiver.
>>
>>	There isn't such a product and it also will never be on the
>>market, if we keep on the current telephone system.
>
>      Some phone companies will soon (if not already) be offering a
>    device that will attatch to your phone and display the phone
>    number of the originating party.

Only if your local phone system supports this new service, and you're
paying for it.  If you take the device to an area which doesn't support
it, it won't work.  Very few areas will support it in the beginning.

Standard voice phone service, at the moment, never sends the calling
phone number to you, so it is inherently impossible for any device on
your line to show it to you.
-- 
Welcome to Mars!  Your         |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
passport and visa, comrade?    | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu

davep@jjmhome.UUCP (Dave Pascoe) (03/13/89)

>       Some phone companies will soon (if not already) be offering a
>     device that will attatch to your phone and display the phone
>     number of the originating party.
>       I read of this several months ago and more recently read that
>     Pacific Bell will be testing the new service in the San Fransisco
>     area.
> 
There have been customer acceptance tests conducted on this technology by
Bell of Pennsylvania in the Harrisburg, PA area.  I think they took place a 
couple of years ago.  The device tested had the ability to display the
telephone number of the incoming caller, "lock out" certain numbers from
being able to call yours, and a couple others I can't remember.  I wonder
what the results of those tests were.  Anybody out there know??
-- 
  Dave Pascoe KM3T/1  Internet:pascoe%vax2@gte.com  
                          UUCP:ulowell!cloud9!davep@jjmhome.uucp
  If you make someone think they thought, they'll love you.
  But, if you make someone actually think, they'll hate you.

pshen@atrp.media.mit.edu (Paul Shen) (03/13/89)

In article <19858@prls.UUCP> gordon@prls.UUCP (Gordon Vickers) writes:
>>In article <1467@PSUECLB> was@psueclb.BITNET writes:
>>>    I have interest to buy an answering machine which has the
>>>capability to display the incoming telephone number before I pick
>>>up the phone receiver.
>
>      If you can be patient for a couple of more years, my opinion is
>    that you may then be able to get an answering machine with this feature.
>
To gain that capability, there are two problems have to be dealt with:
(1) All the current switching systems do not send you any information
on the caller's number. It is true there are (or were) experimental
system which will send that information. (2) But in most states, it is
illegal to trace a phone call. One of the example is that Bell PA has
temorarily suspended that experimental service.

					Paul
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Email:        pshen@atrp.media.mit.edu                |                   |
| Telephone:    (617) 253-0370                          |    Paul Shen      |
| Address:      MIT, E15-384C, Cambridge, Ma 02139      |                   |

hobbit@topaz.rutgers.edu ($ *Hobbit*) (03/14/89)

Well, the local companies are starting to offer what here in NJ is called
"Class Calling Service" -- part of which is a hack to identify the calling
number [Caller*ID service].  It costs money and you need a decoder box to
display the digits.  The details on how the protocol works, I'm told, are
available in various Bellcore technical bulletins:

	TR TSY 000030 -- customer premis data interface, or some such
	TR TSY 000031 -- calling number delivery
	TR TSY 000032 -- bulk calling number ID  [?]

These things are available from your nearest Bellcore but cost money, like
$25 per TR or so.  I am this close to stopping by the local office and picking
them up, because we'll eventually have these services here too and I'm
interested in building a decoder box for it [another Interesting Project
for the list], but it's relatively low priority at this point, so I'm not
sure when I'll get the chance to go get the TRs.  Has anyone else gone out
and fronted the bucks yet and can provide more details??  Rumor has it that
it's done via a 212-modem-like signal between the first and second ring,
but that's all I know about it.

_H*

phupp@warwick.ac.uk (S Millington) (03/15/89)

In article <1467@PSUECLB> was@psueclb.BITNET writes:
>
>    I have interest to buy an answering machine which has the
>capability to display the incoming telephone number before I pick
>up the phone receiver.

  Isn't this normally called tracing the call?

Stuart Millington.
University Of Warwick.(Don't let my ideas ALTER their reputation)
__JANET  phupp@UK.ac.warwick.cu
__OTHERS phupp@UK.ac.warwick.cu

raoul@eplunix.UUCP (Otero) (03/17/89)

In article <1467@PSUECLB> was@psueclb.BITNET writes:
>    I have interest to buy an answering machine which has the
>capability to display the incoming telephone number before I pick
>up the phone receiver.

There has been a debate in the New England area on whether to provide
this service as part of a package. Yes, it's called tracing the call.
On an old switching relay system, it's not trivial: Fike and Friend's
"Undestanding Telephone Electronics" goes into some detail on the
system. On the new computer switching systems, since there is some
memory that remembers what phones are hooked to what bus lines,
transmitting the number of the caller would be trivial with a well
designed system. The problem is for confidential recipients, like
suicide lines, and unlisted callers. Do you *really* want the
suicide hotline to have your number if you call? Or to give
out your unlisted number every time you call for pizza?

-- 
			Nico Garcia, Engineer, CIRL 
			Mass. Eye and Ear Hospital
			raoul@eplunix

woolstar@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu (John D Woolverton) (03/18/89)

> The problem is for confidential recipients, like
> suicide lines, and unlisted callers. Do you *really* want the
> suicide hotline to have your number if you call? Or to give
> out your unlisted number every time you call for pizza?

   Not everyone cares if other people know their phone number,
and not everyone cares who is calling them.  So give the 
caller a choice.  If every phone had it's number, and an
alternate id, and you gave the caller the choice on what
to send, this should cover all bases:

Send normal number: <area code> <xxx> <yyyy>
Send id:    <area code> <0XX> <YYYY>
Send blank: <area code> <001> <0000>

For phone solisitations, the caller may wish to leave
a phone number, for return calls, or mearly the id.
People can set their phones to screen all calls 
that are hidden or blanked, or to screen calls
from all but select people.  

This would also add a possible additional security
layer for phone in modems.  Though how secure are
the phone company computer?  ID faking?  Ghost phones?
Another usefull thing about unique IDs:  you can
still register a complaint with the police of the
phone company even if the other caller masks his
call and send the "id".  You don't know who it is
but the phone company can find out.

And finally, for people REALLY worried about being
anonymous for calling in about taxes, drugs, or
other things:  There's always pay phones.
(At least until they do away with money, and 
   go to computerized bank cards universally.  :-)

-- 
    John D Woolverton               "Association of computing stuff..."
      woolstar@csvax.caltech.edu

My association with anything, is just imaginary.