sak@athena.mit.edu (Don Saklad) (03/21/90)
...from a stack of pending telecommunications questions: Does anyone know something, anything or everything about CNA, customer name and address service? [Moderator's Note: Customer Name and Address Bureau (or Service) is usually only an inter-telco arrangment, where authorized employees of one telco (such as the billing department) can get the name and address of a customer whose charges have to be billed collect, etc. One exception to the rule that CNA can only be used internally by telcos is the one operated by Illinois Bell specifically for the public. (They also have an internal version for their own use.) By dialing 312 (or 708, it matters not) 796-9600 you reach operators at Illinois Bell's Chicago-Wabash central office who do reverse directory lookups at the rate of 35 cents per two numbers. You provide the 312/708 number; they respond with the name and address where the service is located. If the service is non-pub, that's your tough luck; they don't have it available on their terminals. As stated above, most telcos do not offer this service to the public. Are there others besides Illinois Bell, which also does it for Central Tel on the northwest side? PT]
lws@comm.wang.com (Lyle Seaman) (03/22/90)
>[Moderator's Note: Customer Name and Address Bureau (or Service) is .... stuff deleted >luck; they don't have it available on their terminals. As stated >above, most telcos do not offer this service to the public. Are there >others besides Illinois Bell, which also does it for Central Tel on >the northwest side? PT] Is there any legal restriction that prevents me from offering this service myself? It would be a simple matter to set up the database on a computer from the data contained in a (publicly-available) telephone directory. But would there be any market? How often does anyone need to get a name/address given a phone number? Lyle Wang lws@comm.wang.com 508 967 2322 Lowell, MA, USA uunet!comm.wang.com!lws [Moderator's Note: There is no legal restriction whatsoever ... just be sure not to copy in bulk from the phone book; it is copyrighted. And don't copy in bulk from Haines Criss Cross or similar; they are copyrighted also. Both Haines and the telcos put 'ringers' in their book; i.e. non-existent, phake, phalse entries. These are inserted only for the purpose of finding them in print in *someone else's book* later on, so they can sue them for copyright violations. Of course, most telcos will sell you the right to copy their books for the purpose you describe. Haines pays Ameritech BIG $$$$$$$$$$ annually for the right to key-punch their directories in reverse order once Ameritech compiles it. PT]