FCC Clears Way for Caller ID Service in California : Telecom: A new rule puts the burden of blocking the service on the individual customer, not the phone company.
Caller ID, a controversial service that enables the recipient of a phone call to see where the call is coming from before answering, will probably become available in California next year as a result of new rules approved this week by the Federal Communications Commission.
Already available in 46 states, Caller ID, which displays the originating number of an incoming call on a small screen, has been held up in California because the state’s Public Utilities Commission imposed privacy requirements that Pacific Bell said made it impractical to offer the service. The PUC ruled in 1992 that telephone companies would have to automatically prevent unpublished numbers from displaying unless the customer chose otherwise.
The new national standards approved Thursday put the onus on customers to notify the telephone company if they want to stop their line from identifying its number. Customers could request that all calls be blocked or that their number be kept private on a call-by-call basis by dialing star 67 first.
Phone numbers of people who do not ask the telephone company to keep their numbers private--including the 7 million Californians who have unlisted numbers--will automatically be displayed when they call individuals or businesses who subscribe to Caller ID.
Some people have objected to Caller ID, saying it would not only reveal unlisted numbers, but also enable businesses and other organizations to capture the phone numbers of anyone who calls.
But the phone companies counter that Caller ID in its pure form--without the blocking option--effectively eliminates obscene phone calls and other forms of telephone harassment, thus affording a different form of privacy protection.
The new federal rules, which pave the way for Caller ID on long-distance as well as local calls, are scheduled to take effect Dec. 1. Pacific Bell and some smaller telephone companies said they will begin offering the service early next year.
The service would cost $6.50 per month for residents and $7.50 for businesses, a PacBell spokesman said. Customers would have to buy a display device at prices ranging from $19 for an attachment to $80 for a new telephone system, he said.
PacBell said it expects about 720,000 customers to sign up for the service.
