telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator) (11/23/90)
The opening battle in the Illinois dispute over Caller ID began here this past week when Central Telephone Company filed a tariff to begin offering the service, as well as another service that blocks the ID. Centel acknowledged it is offering both Caller ID and blocking to placate critics of Caller ID. As we all know, some people believe that Caller ID is a violation of the caller's privacy, particularly for those who are paying extra to have unlisted phone numbers. Bill Hart, a spokesman for Central Telephone Co. in suburban Park Ridge and Des Plaines, IL -- a division of Centel Corp. -- said "We think it is important to offer ID blocking and to make it free. We're doing it to protect people's privacy." For those readers not familiar with Central Telephone, it is a small telephone company serving two Chicago suburbs and a small part of the northwest side of Chicago. Illinois Bell serves the vast majority of northeastern Illinois, and all of Chicago except for the one small area whose phone office is known as `Chicago-Newcastle'. Central Telephone also serves small portions of Glenview and Northbrook, IL not served by IBT. Illinois Bell and GTE of Illinois, the other telco serving large parts of Illinois want to introduce Caller ID also, but without the option of blocking the ID. A spokeswoman for Illinois Bell said the company's position is that allowing ID blocking cripples the benefits of Caller ID. She asked, "Why would anyone subscribe to Caller ID if the calling party could defeat it?" A spokeswoman for GTE echoed the same sentiments. Both IBT and GTE intend to file their Caller ID tariffs with the Illinois Commerce Commission by the end of December. Neither company has decided how to deal with the problem of Centel blocking the ID on request. This question is particularly relevant to IBT since calls from the northwest side of Chicago to Centel territory are handled as 'local, untimed calls' despite the different area code and the different telco. IBT feels Caller ID will be 'almost useless' to *their* customers in Chicago-Newcastle if half or more of the local traffic (i.e. the local stuff from Centel's Chicago-Newcastle) coming in can block their ID at the customer's request. The Centel spokesman said "In all probability the Illinois Commerce Commission will consolidate the dockets and hear the matter regarding all telcos in Illinois as one ... we expect the ruling will come in three to four months, with Caller IO becoming available sometime around April, 1991. We are prepared to 'turn it on' as soon as the tariff is approved." Centel's tariff calls for a charge of $4 per month for the transmission of Caller ID. The associated customer equipment would be offered for sale at $60 per unit. Blocking would be offered completely free of charge, with a choice of default conditions: always block, except pass ID when a two-digit code is prepended to the number dialed; or never block, except block ID when a two digit code is prepended to the number. I'll provide a update on the situation here when more news is available. Patrick Townson
philip@beeblebrox.dle.dg.com (Philip Gladstone) (11/25/90)
In article <14918@accuvax.nwu.edu> telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator) writes: > ... She asked, "Why would anyone subscribe to Caller ID if the > calling party could defeat it?" The EEC (European Community) are investigating the whole area of Telecom privacy at the moment. There is a draft council directive (SYN 288) that covers this very issue. Article 12 says that 1) The caller must be able to supress the transmission of his Caller ID on a case by case basis or permanently. 2) The called party may eliminate reception of the caller id (case by case or permanently). Further the called party MUST be able to limit incoming calls to those which identify the callers number. The rest of the directive covers itemised billing, storage of billing data, security (in particular of mobile comms), protection of personal data, emergency services override of article 12, call forwarding, unsolicited phone advertising. All this lot to be implemented by 1 Jan 1993. Philip Gladstone Development Lab Europe Data General, Cambridge England. +44 223-67600