Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!dsinc!telecom-request From: adf@aficom.ocunix.on.ca (Andrew Farmer) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Maestro Phones From Northern Telecom Message-ID: Date: 12 Mar 91 23:55:03 GMT Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Organization: AFI Communications - Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Lines: 48 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 199, Message 11 of 13 > [Moderator's Note: On the subject of 'unknown' calls, someone at IBT > said to me they were 'thinking about' identifying every call to the > extent known. For example, a call arrives inter-LATA from Los Angeles. > They seem to be able to pick up some things but not others, so the > display box in those cases would say something like 'From 213', or > possibly 213-000-0000 or similar. I think that would be a welcome > addition to Caller ID instead of just saying 'unknown'. Bell Canada returns the string "Long Distance" for all LD calls and "Unknown Number" for calls from local/non-displayable numbers. The Maestro phone, however, doesn't store the "Long Distance" string -- it just stores them as "Unknown". If the Maestro at least let us know it was LD we could perhaps make some educated guesses at who it might be, when we're paging through the list of callers. I've had a Maestro for about a year now and I agree that it is an excellent phone. There are two nice features that were not mentioned in Stephen Fleming's posting. First, there is the Call Forwarding light. If you use the first two softkeys to define call forwarding on/off, a light will go on as soon as you forward the line and remain on until you cancel the forwarding. I often used to forget to cancel the forwading, but the Maestro now saves me from my mental lapses. The other nice feature is the internal clock. The date and time is automatically reset everytime a 'displayable' call comes in. It simply grabs the date and time information that is passed along the line with all the other caller ID information. It's nice to know that the stored times of incoming calls will still be correct, even after a power failure. There are, however, a couple of flaws in the Maestro's design. One is that it will only store the last fifteen numbers, which I find is an unreasonably low number. Also, it will not store the number if another extention picks up the line, which means that if the answering maching takes the call, I won't know the number of the caller. Andrew Farmer | AFI Communications Internet: adf@aficom.ocunix.on.ca | P.O.Box 11087, Stn H UUCP: ...!latour!aficom!adf | Nepean, Ontario FidoNet: Andrew Farmer on 1:163/115 | K2H 7T8 Canada