bill@gauss.eedsp.gatech.edu (bill) (12/20/90)
I had a chance to speak with the Southern Bell PR folks earlier and
have some word of note to pass on. Mention may have been made here on
Telecomm Digest about Ga. Public Service Commission approval to
Southern Bell for the implementation of Caller ID for a one-year trial
period.
According to SBT&T, "Caller ID is expected to be on-line for
SS7-equipped COs no later than February 14 for the metropolitan
Atlanta area. Outlying areas of Georgia are expected to be on-line by
mid-1991." The monthly charge will be $6.00 for residential customers
(I have no word on the rate for a business line).
By granting approval for a one-year trial period, the Georgia PSC has
permitted Southern Bell to get on-line with the service with a
minimum of pre-deployment wrangling in the courts. Others' personal
opinions notwithstanding, I think this is a wise and prudent decision.
The "trial" period will bear out whether or not any of the alleged
shortcomings of Caller ID will actually emerge. I'll encourage others
to respond to the moral/ethical/other implications of Caller ID by way
of the Telecom-Privacy mailing list.
Bill Berbenich Georgia Tech Atlanta Georgia, 30332
uucp: ...!{backbones}!gatech!eedsp!bill Internet: bill@eedsp.gatech.edu
[Moderator's Note: Telecom Privacy can be subscribed by writing to the
Moderator: telecom-priv-request@pica.army.mil PAT]peterm@sumax.seattleu.edu (Peter Marshall) (12/21/90)
Re: Bill Berbenich's 12/19 post in Digest #892-- "Getting online with a minimum of pre-deployment wrangling" seems euphemistic and equally problematic. Such a notion of Caller ID trials also seems to be premised on an all-too-unsceptical assumption about trials in general, and this kind in particular. It might also be observed that PUC approvals of this kind can involve an interest in ultimate buck-passing to the courts anyway. Thus, so much for the evils of "pre-deployment wrangling."
cyberoid@milton.u.washington.edu (Robert Jacobson) (12/22/90)
A one-year trial will not be enough to expose the profound effects of Caller ID...for example, building telemarketing lists, getting enough customers on the system to build these lists, their use by telemarketers for return calls, etc. I suggest that separating "moral/ethical/other" issues in another conference caters to technological determinism: implement the technology, then let others try to fix things in its aftermath. But there is active discussion in both Risks and the new eff.org.talk newsgroups. Bob Jacobson [Moderator's Note: And don't forget the discussion going on in the Telecom-Priv Digest as well. PAT]
peterm@sumax.seattleu.edu (Peter Marshall) (12/24/90)
There needs to be far more critical questioning of assumptions under the too-commmon, naive acceptance of the function of Caller ID trials, including the easy-out/quick=fix/plug-hole-in-dike they seem to offer to regulators willing to approve such trials. The cart's at too much distance from the horse. Peter Marshall