Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Mon, 8 Apr 91 21:44:06 -0700 From: David Gast Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: My First Month of Caller ID in Atlanta Message-ID: Organization: TELECOM Digest Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu 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 278, Message 10 of 11 Lines: 50 Robert Jacobson wrote: > The "alleged horrors" which Bill Berbenich has not yet experienced as > a result of one month of Caller ID have to do with duration and > penetration. The telcos commonly pass off one month tests of small > service populations as scientific surveys and are always relieved for > their customers when alleged horrors do not occur. The point is to > wait a couple years when a few tens of millions of more people are > forced into Caller ID and the files have started being built up. Then > let's see if the horrors happen, Bill. The Moderator moderated: > What about in places like New Jersey, where Caller*ID has been a > reality now for about a year? I was at one of the CPUC Caller ID hearings. Sure enough one of the phone companies was there spouting off information from a small test in rural Kentucky (this is LA!) that lasted about one month. Of course, when one of the people in the audience asked to see the test questions, the test results, and the like to verify that the test actually proved what the company said it did, he was told that the information is not available to the public. (It is apparently available to participants in the formal hearings, however). Mr Jacobson, of course, is correct. Most businesses do not have devices to trap the incoming phone numbers at the present time, but per other messages "Caller ID RS-232 Interface Needed" we know that they are available. Additionally, the value of the information will come as companies know not just one call, but hundreds of calls. When they can say "Oh, it's just Bill, he never buys, let's not answer the phone" or "It's Sam from redlined area Y, no need to answer," etc. Additionally, these people will not necessarily be calling you from intra-LATA phones, so if you have been ignoring out of area calls during dinner, you don't know if Radio Shack (or someone Radio Shacked disseminated the information to) has been calling you. Finally, you should not necessarily expect that these people will only call you up, they can also send junk mail, send you junk mail with different prices/specials, or adjust the prices at the store. In most respects, you cannot know how the information about you was used. David Gast gast@cs.ucla.edu [Moderator's Note: There was one thing I was mistaken about. In New Jersey, Caller-ID has not been around a year; it has been around for about three years. Still, no horror stories. PAT]