cayz@udel.edu (James Cayz) (04/09/90)
Here in the land of 302 / Bell Atlantic / Diamond State Bell, we are expected to get Caller ID on May 1 (pending FCC approval). Before I run out and get it, I have a few general questions. Please reply to me directly - I can re-post to net or directly to others who request a summary. 1) The cost for the service is $5 for installation + $6.50 / month, the $5 being the turn-on cost for any CLASS feature. Isn't this a little high, monthly (maybe I missed this, but I thought I had seen some of you say it was free after activation charges)??? This is not the charge for Privacy (which, although they don't have yet, they are definately thinking of making available). 2) Caller ID Units - I have called the Bell Atlantic Consumers Services group, and the only unit w/out a phone that they have in current supply is their most expensive model, that holds 35 last numbers, read vs. new numbers, etc, etc, and is $79... Their other 2 models are so "sold out" and so back-ordered that they don't even know when they will (if ever) have them again. Should I check elsewhere for these units, and how much do they cost (where / general range / features ) ???? 3) Will we (ie, in the next 30 years) see Caller-ID cross-country? Not every number, but maybe all numbers on digital CO's?? 4) Most important question, and most convoluted... I want to get Caller ID for home (302-737-XXXX). No Problem. However, I have friends who live at the University of Delaware, as well as people I would rather not talk to, but have the answering machine kick in :-) . Now the university is on this mess of a system, with dorms (ie, friends) on 302-738-XXXX and offices (ie, other people) on 302-451-XXXX, but they are cross-connected (so dialing '5' + XXXX gets an office from a dorm and vice-versa). I had heard that Caller ID sometimes displays the outgoing trunk line # from a PBX, and wondered what I would get on my Caller ID box. The rep could not find out, definitively. Now, since they are such a messy system, would they share outbound lines? Would I maybe get "451-0000" for both a "738" and "451" call, or would I get "738-0000" for a "738" call, "451-0000" for a "451" call? Rep still didn't know. But, she did have a great piece of info - Call Block works fine this way - If I Call Block'ed 451-1234, 451-1233 and 451-1235, as well as all other 451- & 738- numbers would still get through. (ie, the Call Block part of CLASS _can_ distinguish between separate extensions of a PBX). The Question Is - What does Caller ID do (both "supposed to" and "does here in my area") with PBX and multi-exchange PBX calls (assuming the Caller ID is connected to a number outside the PBX's). Thanx again for any replies -_please_send_them_directly_to_me, I will summarize to net if I get > 10 requests (or 1 from the moderator :-) ), otherwise I _will_ send each requestor a summary via direct e-mail. |James Cayz can be found via: USPS: Educational Technology Laboratory, |E-MAIL (ARPA): cayz@louie.udel.edu : 203 Willard Hall Education Building, |PHONE: +1 302 451-6307 : University of Delaware, Newark DE 19716 [Moderator's Note: Yes, please post the summary here for us. PT]