Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!bionet!agate!telecom-request From: bill%gauss@gatech.edu (bill) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: My First Month of Caller ID in Atlanta Message-ID: Date: 19 Mar 91 19:00:32 GMT Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Reply-To: bill@eedsp.gatech.edu Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 70 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 219, Message 2 of 7 Well, the first month of my Caller ID service has passed and I felt that I should pass on my observations on the matter. It has pretty much been as I expected. I'll explain what has taken place. I've noticed a fair share of what is apparently telemarketing droids who usually call close to dinner time. If I get an "Out-of-area" call at dinner time, I usually let the machine pick it up. It has usually been the telemarketers who will call at this most inopportune time - they generally show up as out-of-area because I'd guess they use out-WATS to call their suckers (I mean prospects). Some telemarketers call locally - Sears Vinyl Siding called the other night, for example. I told them the usual "not interested." A fax machine tried to call me the other night, starting at 11:00 P.M. I let it call twice before I blocked the number. I don't have a fax machine - apparently someone misdialed my number into their fax machine. Calls from either the "A" or "B" cellular systems in Atlanta show up as "Out-of-area." I have found that this is because neither is hooked up to SS-7 as yet. Calls from the centrex here at Georgia Tech show up as their respective numbers, 894- or 853-XXXX. Calls that are Call Forwarded to me show the originating, not the intermediary, phone number (unless they are forwarded via cellular). Calls via Southern Bell calling card show up as "Out-of-area." Calls placed via SB operator show up as "Out-of-area." Calls from PBXs show up as what I'd guess is a trunk on the PBX or as the main number - there seems to be no consistency on PBX numbers displayed. An interesting note: Caller ID went out on me for a day. I called repair (of course) to resolve the matter. After they got me going again, the QA person called to ask if I was okay again. I asked her what caused the problem and she said that "a translator had gone out" or some such. Apparently, translations are kept in a database and they are the telco's record of the services which correspond to a particular POTS line. Now I know something new. My translation should have had "Caller ID" in it, among other things. During this first month, I have called numerous businesses for various reasons. I've called to order pizza, to ask the local Radio Shack for a price or two, to ask the local Circuit City and Hi Fi Buys for prices, you name it. As yet, I have not been sujected to any of the alleged horrors which some naysayers had predicted with the advent of caller ID. I have not been awakened at 2 A.M. to ask "Now that you know how much the XVY color TV is, why don't you come in to get one?" No one from Radio Shack has called me to ask why I never came by to buy that TV antenna on sale, you know, the one you called in to ask the price on? The pizza place still asks me for my phone number. And even if a telemarketer does call, I just tell them "not interested," then hang up (unless the answering machine gets it first). No invasion of privacy here. But then I have never been one to say that what, at worst, is a minor inconvenience is actually AN INVASION OF MY PRIVACY, because that's not the case by any stretch of the imagination. So, in it's first month on my line, it seems to me that Caller ID is not "technology for its own sake," but is actually a handy tool. My privacy has not been invaded. I've managed to surprise most of my friends and such who call me by answering "Hello there, Joe Blow!," to the point that they don't wonder how I know who's calling any more. It's nice to know a little more about who's calling me. Obviously, "they" know my number when they call me. Now I know theirs. I like that option. If anyone has any questions for me, please reply via e-mail and I'll do my best to answer. I'm no Caller ID expert, just a consumer who has come to like the service. Bill Berbenich Georgia Tech, Atlanta Georgia, 30332 uucp: ...!{backbones}!gatech!eedsp!bill Internet: bill@eedsp.gatech.edu