GREEN@wharton.upenn.edu (Scott D. Green) (08/07/89)
This appeared in the Phila. Inquirer last week, by Jim McNair of the Miami Herald (reprinted without permission): "To most of us, people who sell by "cold-calling" are just as pesky as mosquitoes. Not even unlisted phone numbers prevent solicitors of penny stocks, insurance or home-improvement services from calling you at home in the middle of supper." "But one cure will be available later this summer. This month, a Winter Park, FL company, Coda Call Corp., will begin producing a telephone attachment that will require callers to punch in a three-letter password to get thru. The four-by-four inch box shuts out obscene calls, unsolicited sales pitches, wrong numbers and others who don't know your code." "'On the front of the box,' said Coda Call president Joseph Lutz, 'we have a switch that says *normal* and *code*. If you want all the calls to come thru, you slide the switch in the *normal* position. But the minute you slide the switch into *code*, your telephone is completely out of the circuit because my box is monitoring the line.'" "The Coda Call Model C-757-3 is connected to the line between the wall plug and the telephone. When switched on, it intercepts the ring and sends back a tone calling for the three-letter password. The caller has five seconds to dial the code." "There are drawbacks to the Coda Call product. Friends and relatives who don't know your password are shut out along with the undesirable callers. And the box is incapable of passing on calls to your answering machine." "Two weeks ago, some of Lutz's friends from California came to town unexpectedly and couldn't call him because his call-blocker was on. They finally reached him by getting the password from his son." "Lutz acknowledged that other call-blocking devices were available, but said that they generally worked by blocking designated numbers." "With such devices, 'you have to know the number you want to get rid of,' Lutz said. 'But if I wanted to get to you, I could go to a phone booth. And you can't get rid of solicitors because you don't know their number.'" "The Coda Call will be sold thru selected distributors of telephone products for $129." "Lutz said he hoped to introduce a $139 call-blocker for junk-fax transmissions by year-end." So, at the risk of starting another Call*Block Caller*ID discussion, what do you think? Winner or loser? -Scott "in no way connected with Coda Call, BOC's, IEX's, Miami Herald, Phila. Inquirer" Green. Member FDIC. [Moderator's Note: They are not the first with such a device. The Privecode, by International Mobile Machines in Pennsylvania was first introduced in 1982, and they did have a method of shunting the caller direct to the answering machine, which plugged into the back of the Privecode unit. It was a couple hundred dollars more than Coda Call, however. PT]
edg@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Edward Greenberg) (08/09/89)
Phone companies will love this one, since the "Coda Call" answers the phone, and if you don't know the code, you've paid anyway. One would have to want to be pretty isolated to put one of these things on the phone, since many people you like will probably run into it. In addition, if you leave it on when you're not home, you're causing everyone, even people who know the number, to call and get nothing. How about one that answers (and tickets) the call, then returns busy, until you answer the phone. That'd be truly antisocial :-) -edg -- Ed Greenberg uunet!apple!netcom!edg
fangli@ihlpq.att.com (Fangli F Chang) (08/09/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0278m01@vector.dallas.tx.us> GREEN@wharton.upenn.edu (Scott D. Green) writes: >X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 278, message 1 of 12 >This appeared in the Phila. Inquirer last week, by Jim McNair of the Miami >Herald (reprinted without permission): (stuff deleted) >"The Coda Call Model C-757-3 is connected to the line between the >wall plug and the telephone. When switched on, it intercepts the >ring and sends back a tone calling for the three-letter >password. The caller has five seconds to dial the code." > >"There are drawbacks to the Coda Call product. Friends and >relatives who don't know your password are shut out along with >the undesirable callers. And the box is incapable of passing on >calls to your answering machine." (more stuff deleted) >"The Coda Call will be sold thru selected distributors of >telephone products for $129." Too expensive for its price/performance. >So, at the risk of starting another Call*Block Caller*ID >discussion, what do you think? Winner or loser? Loser, of course. The functions provided by the Coda Call can be easily replaced by today's answering machine. The AT&T 1320 answering machine that I own has a "emergency call through" feature. Once the answering machine took over, the caller can enter a security code (a different one from the one that used to operate the answering machine remotely) to have the answering machine BEEP loudly for ten times even when the volume control is completely turned off. After that the caller can opt to reenter the security code again and again or wait for the recording signal and leave his/her message. The price I paid was a little bit less than $100 (item was on sale, tax included). I guess AT&T probably not the only one that offer this feature on answering machines so I doubt there will be a bright future for call blocking devices. >-Scott "in no way connected with Coda Call, BOC's, IEX's, Miami >Herald, Phila. Inquirer" Green. Member FDIC. What I really hope to have is a voice answering service liked device: "I'm not here to take your phone call if you are calling from xxx please press 1 if you are calling from yyy please press 2 .... otherwise please wait for the beep and leave you name and phone number ...". Better yet, when CNI is available in the future, the device will automatic answer the incoming call with personalized message, route to recording machine (with emergency call through feature, of course), ring the phone with recording machine as a backup or make some weird noise then drop the line ;-). I know that there are some product on the market like this but none of them is under $100 (missed by two 0 :-) may be three). Fangli Chang -- attmail!ihlpl!fangli (312)979-1734