jdominey@bsga05.attmail.com (02/20/91)
With the arrival of the latest Star*Service flyer in my Southern Bell bill, I started thinking about the Call*Trace feature. So I called Bell to make sure I understand how it works. The helpful Bellrep told me that the charge is $4.00/month. Anyone with this service can, after receiving an annoying phone call, press the appropriate code (*-something-something), and the call record will be sent to Security. After Security gets two of these "complaints" against the same number, they will send a written notice telling the subscriber that someone at that number is making harassing calls. Subsequent complaints could lead to denial of service and/or legal action. Interestingly, the only way for the Call*Trace customer to find out what effect his traces have done is to call Security at an 800 number. The helpful Bellrep thought Security would give out the number that the trace went to, but did not sound certain. 1) Obviously the potential for abuse is pretty high. Imagine your teenager getting hacked off at one of her friends and Call*Tracing any of the friend's calls. 2) That monthly service charge irritates me. Bell is obviously milking all these features (a.k.a. CLASS?) for every drop of revenue they can squeeze, but in this case, IMHO, they're working against the public interest. Call tracing has always been a service needed by specific individuals under specific (and rare) circumstances. Yet Bell is being allowed to charge for Call*Trace as if it would be used frequently and indiscriminately a la Caller ID. It would be far more appropriate to *require* the service be available anywhere the Central Office is capable, and charge $4.00 for EACH trace. I think a letter to my Public Service Commission may be in order here. Jack Dominey, AT&T Commercial Marketing, Tucker GA 404-496-6925 AT&T Mail: !dominey