ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 1, 1995 TAG: 9512010032
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B7 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
MEMO: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.
CALLERS NOW WILL HAVE the option of shielding their numbers from the receiving telephone.
Caller ID, the system that lets people know who's phoning, is going long distance today. But so is a simple way to shield the calling number.
A code on the telephone touch pad will become important in a compromise that protects privacy when the caller wants it. On the receiving end, people who pay for the service will see area code and number - and, in some places, the name of the caller.
The user who doesn't want his number displayed on the receiving telephone must punch the asterisk button, then 67 before dialing the number on out-of-state calls. Or, in some cases, the number can be blocked on all calls, then released on a per-call basis with an asterisk and 82.
``This will balance the privacy interests of the callers and the calling party,'' said Regina Keeney, chief of the FCC's Common Carrier Bureau. ``You can choose to send or block your number. When you answer the phone, you are letting someone in your home. With Caller ID, you know who is there.''
The blocking-unblocking service is free for the caller. But the ability to receive the number will remain an extra charge on the telephone bill. And the instrument to see the number still must be purchased, whether as part of a telephone or separately.
Even as nationwide Caller ID goes into effect, electronics stores are stocking new devices to simplify the blocking-unblocking job. Some will come as part of new telephones.
Until now, Caller ID has been available only on local calls. But the Federal Communications Commission last May decided it should go nationwide today.
The government wanted to have per-call number blocking or unblocking on long-distance calls only, but telephone companies said their equipment could not tell the difference between local and long distance. That means the code must precede even local numbers on those occasions when the user doesn't want his identity to precede him or her.
Although the national system makes its bow today, some smaller telephone companies have asked for a time extension because of equipment and other problems.
And California won't have it for a while, because the state utilities commission is imposing public education requirements on telephone companies that none has met to date.
Pay telephones and party lines don't have to have the outgoing Caller ID equipment until Jan. 1, 1997.
Businesses with toll-free 800 numbers have a system called ``automatic number identification,'' which is similar to Caller ID and cannot be blocked. The FCC said it is up to telephone companies to alert their customers to this.
LENGTH: Medium: 60 linesby CNB