FCC Fashions Rules to Curb 900-Call Abuses : Communications: It also moves closer to a policy on Caller ID. The service identifies the number of a phone from which dialing originates.

The Federal Communications Commission issued rules Thursday to rein in the interstate 900 telephone services industry, which is under attack for luring consumers into making costly long-distance calls.

The commission also moved toward setting a national policy on Caller ID, a controversial service that displays the number of the phone from which a call is being made. The FCC signaled that interstate Caller ID is not far away, though there are privacy questions to be resolved.

Under the new rules covering 900 service, which sells everything from sex-oriented conversations to credit cards, providers who charge more than $2 per call will have to deliver a “preamble” message disclosing the price and the product and saying who is offering it.

The commission said the message must be “clearly understandable and audible” and callers cannot be charged for listening to it. After hearing the message, callers must be given an opportunity to hang up without charge.

Children, who often have been the target of unscrupulous 900 service providers, will get additional protection: Special warnings must be given in the messages of calls to children under 18.

Moreover, telephone companies will no longer be allowed to provide transmission service to 900 companies that encourage children to put their telephone near a TV set to pick up a multifrequency tone that automatically dials the call for them.

The commission also said that, where it is technically feasible, phone companies must offer free blocking of 900 services for a limited period. After that they can charge for it.

The new rules also forbid phone companies from cutting off service of customers for failure to pay for 900 charges.

The rules also ban automated collect calls and require that computerized auto-dialers that engage in what is known as “line seizing”--remaining connected long after the consumer has hung up--must disconnect promptly.

The 900 service industry, which recently adopted its own voluntary guidelines, said it could support the FCC rules, which it said are not perfect.

The rules do not specifically address the one type of service that has made the 900 service industry notorious--offers of adult entertainment, sex lines and telephone pornography.