Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!rutgers!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us (John R. Levine) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Caller ID Saves A Life! Message-ID: Date: 15 Oct 89 21:41:01 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Reply-To: johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us Organization: Segue Software, Cambridge MA Lines: 33 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 454, message 3 of 9 In article telecom-v09i0450m01 our Moderator writes: >For those of you who think Caller ID is the worst scourge to ever come >to the telephone industry, consider this case from Van Nuys, CA about >three weeks ago [in which a small child dialed 911 and the dispatcher >sent help based on the address display that E911 provides.] Some of us left wing wackos who dislike the way that telcos are introducing Caller ID think that 911 is a fine example of how Caller ID should work. If you dial 911, your call gets IDed. If you dial the cops' regular seven-digit number you don't get IDed. Many people have made technically straightforward proposals to allow ID to be turned on and off per call and per line. I believe that if the telcos implemented them you would see the opposition to Caller ID disappear. If you want not to answer calls from phones that don't provide ID, that's fine, I'll send a postcard. As has been noted here before, Enhanced 911 is technically different from the Caller ID that has caused all of the argument. As far as I know, no telco proposes to provide the calling phone number's address to Caller ID users like they do to 911. By the way, I called American Express last week to argue about my bill. Amex has been reported to have an 800 version of Caller ID that looks up the phone number of each call and translates it to the caller's card number. When the person who answered asked me for my card number, I asked whether she could tell it from my phone number and she said she couldn't. Either she was lying or they've turned it off. Regards, John Levine, johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|lotus}!esegue!johnl