Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!pacbell!ames!xanth!lll-winken!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!wuarchive!swbatl!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: GREEN@wharton.upenn.edu (Scott D. Green) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Coda Call Blocks Unwanted Calls Message-ID: Date: 7 Aug 89 15:03:00 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Lines: 57 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us 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): "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]