konstan@postgres.berkeley.edu (Joe Konstan) (03/29/89)
It seems that a common critique of CPID is that emergency calls will be missed (coming from an unfamiliar number) and that people call from different numbers at different times. It seems that there is an easy solution to this: Give anyone who requests it a calling card with a (real or faked) phone number and PIN (current calling cards could be used). Anyone who wishes to identify themselves as the calling party could dial a prefix, their number and PIN, and then the number they wish to call (this could be handled automatically for calling card calls, so that friend's houses and pay phone numbers would not get sent by default). Now, when I get a call, I may not know what PHONE I am being called from, but I have an identifier of the PERSON calling or the phone called from, as selected by the caller. The shelter problem, and the emergency call problem are solved this way. An additional hitch might be that using the PIN of the called phone would override the request for CPID, so calling me (123-456-7890) and giving my PIN would get you through whether or not I requested CPID before accepting a call. The only problems remaining could be solved by allowing both default and one-time override of sending the CPID. Joe Konstan konstan@postgres.berkeley.ede