Caller ID

[tony@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca (Tony Turner)]

--> Someone was commenting upon Pacific Bell and various interpretations 
of the implementation of the "Caller ID" feature. I don't know what the 
U.S does about this - but I can comment upon how it has been implemented 
here in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. There was some public outcry when it 
was first introduced and some of the points raised were valid enough (or 
the public pressure was strong enough...) that EdTel modified the 
management end of the process. In a nutshell; the "safety features" are 
that one can have the feature and use it so that one can see the phone 
number of whomever is calling, however, if the number is long distance, 
then that's all it says and no number is shown; if the call is 
originating from a local area that does not have it's switch upgraded to 
support this feature, then it says unknown number. If one wishes to place 
an outgoing call and one does NOT wish to have one's phone number 
displayed at the other end (eg: calling from a 'Battered Women's 
Shelter', etc.) then one just calls the phone company and they place the 
call for you, so your number does not appear at the receiving end. EdTel 
was charging twenty-fice cents for this service; but they changed that to 
no charge, after the fuss it generated. This seems to solve most of the 
ethical and legal questions regarding this feature - or at least enough 
that few compalin about it anymore. Of course, if someone uses this 
service to 'hide' behind when making a call - there is call-tracing and 
other similar services available from the phone company and the police if 
there continues to be such a problem. I dearly appreciate having this 
feature as when the punks that phoned up to talk to my daughters late at 
night found out about it I ceased having most of those calls!  :-) The 
few who were too stupid (a seemingly teenage affliction) to stop; soon 
did so when I called them back at 3:35 am after they had called at 3:30 
am. We also have a call-blocking (also called: call-screening) feature 
that allowed me to block any of the more persistent door-knobs from 
calling from their own phone. All-in-all, I think that the caller ID 
feature is GREAT!! The peace and quiet is worth it...  =B=Y=E= -Tony.

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Tony Turner              tony@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca