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From: dwp@cci632.cci.com (Dana Paxson)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Return*Call Humor
Message-ID: <15342@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 7 Dec 90 18:59:16 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 875, Message 11 of 14


One of the first things I do when I see an array of features supplied
in a system is ask myself: What collisions or 'cross- products' of
features yield newly emergent effects?  It seems to me in the rush to
tantalize with new services and collect new revenues, the telephone
companies are rushing some not-well- thought-out combinations to
market.  The call-forwarding plus call-return combination should have
been better analyzed before setting them out for the already-dazed
subscriber.

A nuisance caller who has unsupervised access to a telephone providing
call forwarding can set call forward on that phone to target someone,
then dial through the forwarded phone with a nuisance call.  This
example is a kind of inverse of the one discussed earlier.  Disabling
of call-forward when executing a call-return in this situation simply
leaves the unsuspecting owner of the forwarded phone with an irate
victim confronting him/her.  It is a complicated situation to resolve
in any case unless the call forwarding is somehow 'visible' to the
recipient of the call.


Dana Paxson    Computer Consoles, Inc.  97 Humboldt Street
Rochester, NY  14609   716 654-2588     dwp@cci632.com