covert@covert.enet.dec.com (John R. Covert 12-Jun-1990 0932) (06/12/90)
I'm not sure why John Higdon thinks that Caller ID would be more effective than other SS7 services in preventing his 3AM phone calls. Call Trace would allow him to take legal action against the caller. Incoming Call Block would stop the calls. (For those of you unfamiliar with Incoming Call Block, you can program up to five numbers from which you do not wish to receive calls, and you can enter the last number which called you using a feature code.) John's 3AM caller would be told that John was not accepting calls at this time if he called again. Caller ID would still cause the phone to ring, and John would still be rousted out of his sleep. All the privacy stuff aside, do not forget that the main purpose of Caller ID is so that the phone company can sell YOUR number to businesses who want to call you at home in the evening to try to sell you things. /john
rees@dabo.ifs.umich.edu (Jim Rees) (06/14/90)
In article <8928@accuvax.nwu.edu>, covert@covert.enet.dec.com (John R. Covert 12-Jun-1990 0932) writes: > I'm not sure why John Higdon thinks that Caller ID would be more > effective than other SS7 services in preventing his 3AM phone calls. Here's my solution. Back in the days when I still had telephone service at home, I used to have a single Western Electric mechanical ringer in the living room, with a switch on it. I turned it off every night when I went to bed. The other twelve phones in the house all had their ringers disconnected. The problem with SS7 services is that you have to pay for them. I'm all in favor of universal free Caller-ID with universal free Caller-ID block. (Where "free" means everybody has to pay for it.)
ergo@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Isaac Rabinovitch) (06/15/90)
In <8928@accuvax.nwu.edu> covert@covert.enet.dec.com (John R. Covert) writes: >I'm not sure why John Higdon thinks that Caller ID would be more >effective than other SS7 services in preventing his 3AM phone calls. >Call Trace would allow him to take legal action against the caller. Very often, such callers aren't breaking any laws, just being thoughtless. There's a certain very popular motel which is responsible for most of my wrong numbers; it's easy to transform their number into mine if you reverse two digits and/or confuse a scribbled seven with a scribble nine. What's especially vexing is that this motel (private jacuzzis, oversized beds; you know the kind of place) attracts some very flaky people who keep dialing my number over and over, sometimes abusing me for asking them to dial more carefully, more often hanging up as soon as I answer; in both cases, they often call me again *immediately*. I often wish I had some way of communicating my frustration at these people. Another time I used to get a lot of calls meant for a Stanford student who had my number before me. This guy had quite an enviable social life, judging from some of the messages left on my answering machine -- too bad I couldn't return some of the more interesting calls.