Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!ria!uwovax.uwo.ca!telecom-request
From: TERRY@spcvxa.bitnet (Terry Kennedy, Operations Mgr)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: My First Month of Caller ID in Atlanta
Message-ID: <telecom11.233.2@eecs.nwu.edu>
Date: 24 Mar 91 08:35:47 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 233, Message 2 of 12

In article <telecom11.223.2@eecs.nwu.edu>, cyberoid@milton.u.
washington.edu (Robert Jacobson) writes:

> [Moderator's Note: What about in places like New Jersey, where
> Caller*ID has been a reality now for about a year? Maybe one or more
> of the 'veterans' of Caller*ID will write on the topic of abuses -- if
> there are any -- now that this new technology has had a chance to get
> established.   PAT]

  Well, I believe my employer (St. Peter's College) was the first
non-internal installation of Caller*ID. We had just converted to
Centrex from a Dimension PBX and started having problems like people
calling the main number from the corner payphone and asking "May I
have an outside line, please?". Since the Dimension consoles provided
the extension number and the Centrex attendant position didn't, there
was no way of knowing what was an inside call and what was not.  This
would have remained a minor nuisance except that the pranks were
extended to bomb threats.

  In pursuing this with the authorities (both police and telco), we
were informed of the plans for Caller*ID. We got display units (AT&T
models, not the plastic ones the telco now offers) for the main
numbers. At that time, ICLID was enabled for all Centrex lines, even
though it didn't show up in the feature set in CCRS (I believe this
was a special generic, if that makes any sense, which was loaded for
us). It also delivered the information before _each_ ring instead of
on the first ring only, as it does now.

  Somewhere along the way it was converted to a per-line basis and
first-ring only. We stopped getting the threats and other harrasment.
At this point I have ICLID enabled on my office phone, but don't have
a display box. I haven't received any more or less sales calls than
before Caller*ID was offered, and I don't recall any that were
"targeted" at me (as some suggest Caller*ID would be used by
merchants). The same is true for my home phone.


Terry Kennedy           Operations Manager, Academic Computing
terry@spcvxa.bitnet     St. Peter's College, US
terry@spcvxa.spc.edu    (201) 915-9381