‘Call Trace’ Proposal Is Criticized : Telephones: One customer tells a PUC hearing he should not have to pay for what is a public benefit.
A proposed service that would allow Pacific Bell customers to automatically trace threatening phone calls drew some criticism at a public hearing Monday of the Public Utilities Commission.
The proposed “Call Trace” option would cost $10 for installation and $10 and $20 respectively for the first two traces to the same number. After that, there would be no charge to trace that number for 30 days.
Telephone customer Ben Neufield complained about the charge, saying that police will tap a line free if customers have had obscene calls. But the trace is not automatic.
Neufield said the proposed Call Trace “is not for my benefit but for the public benefit. Why should I have to pay for a public service?”
Ronald F. Del Principie, Pacific Bell area vice president, answered that in states where Call Trace is free, it is abused by some users.
“The police (in those states) asked that a charge be placed on it,” Del Principie said. He said that more than two years of market research have gone into Pacific Bell’s proposals, and that “these services came out of that market research.”
Another service proposed by Pacific Bell, “Caller ID,” uses a device installed on the customer’s phone to reveal a caller’s phone number. The cost would be $6.50 and $7.50 per month for residential and business users, respectively.
But customer Elizabeth Sharron said Monday that that option “will increase harassment because people will get your number who never thought of using it before.”
But Del Principie said the feature is Bell of Canada’s “most popular service” among its customers, 90% of whom are residential users.
Also, California law requires that the phone company make available to callers at no charge a feature that prevents their number from appearing to the person they are calling, on a per-call basis.
The administrative law judge presiding over the hearings said public opinion is running about 60% to 40% against the Caller ID function.
“I don’t think people understand” the blocking option that allows obscene phone calls to be blocked, Judge John Lemke said.
Another feature proposed by Pacific Bell, the “Call Block” option, would allow customers to reject calls from 10 phone numbers of their choosing at a cost $4 per month for residential users and $5 per month for businesses.
Pacific Bell representatives said proposals for these and other services were filed with the commission last week.
The public hearing is the third of six being held by the commission throughout the state. A decision will be made on the proposals at the end of the year.
