CER2520@ritvax.bitnet (Curtis E. Reid) (06/16/90)
Article from DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE, Rochester, New York, Friday, June 15,
1990, page 10D:
ROCHESTER TEL TO OFFER BLOCKING OF CALLER ID
By Phil Ebersole, Democrat and Chronicle
Rochester Telephone Corp., in an important concession to critics of
its proposed Caller ID service, said it's willing to provide Caller ID
blocking, but only on a per-call basis....
....Requiring callers to dial a code to block a call, Rochester Tel
staff members argue, would:
* Prevent blocking of numbers in emergency calls to fires, police,
ambulance and other emergency services. Caller ID would be important
if the caller is a child, a non-English speaker or someone with speech
or hearing impairment.
* Allow people being called to know when a caller is someone
intentionally making an anonymous call, and not just and old friend
with an unlisted number.
Rochester Tel is test-marketing the service in Perinton, currently the
only part of the New York state where the service is available....
....Richard Kessel, chairman of the New York Consumer Protection
Board, yesterday asked the Public Service Commission to prohibit
Caller ID except by telephone companies who provide both "general
blocking" and "selective blocking."
With "general blocking," the number never would be revealed except
when calling emergency numbers. With "selective blocking," callers
could use a dialing code to control when their numbers are
revealed....
....Rochester Tel staff, in a position paper dated June 1, said
critics of Caller ID are confused about the meaning of privacy. It's
the person being called whose privacy is intruded upon, the staff
said....
....Research indicates that 65 percent of Rochester Tel's customers a
year receive annoyance calls -- ranging from threats and obscene calls
to children's pranks....
....Rochester Tel's proposal is that phone numbers be blocked only if
callers punch *67 on push-button phones or dial 1167 on rotary phones.
New Jersey experienced a 49 percent drop in annoyance calls following
introduction of Caller ID, Rochester Tel staff said....
....Another issue for Rochester Tel is cost. In Perinton, the
company offered both line (general) blocking and per-call (selective)
blocking. About 525 of the 10,500 Perinton residents asked for
general blocking, and blocked more than 17,000 calls a week. The rest
-- 95 percent of Perinton subscribers -- blocked only 10 calls a
week....
....Told of Rochester Tel's position, Kessel said he's pleased the
company recognizes the need for some sort of blocking service,
particularly since Rochester Tel is "the guinea pig of New York state"
in testing this service.
He said there's still a need for public hearings on Caller to explore
this issue.