'CALL SCREENING' - PROS AND CONS 

Phone companies are pushing "call screening". A small attachment identifies the calling number before you pick up the phone. There are obvious advantages. Many people don't want sales calls or old boyfriends and distant relatives bothering them during meals, weekends or playtime. The screening device can pass the call to an answering machine, or there is simply no answer.

But like any change, addition or new technology, all the results are not quickly noticeable even by phone companies that set up the system. A case in point: harassment. Suppose a former wife begins to harass a former husband now living with a new wife. With the new service, the former wife's number is entered into the "call screening" phone and when her number shows up, the call simply goes unanswered. It doesn't end here. Suppose the former wife gets upset when she realizes what's happening and starts drinking. Halfway through Bottle #1 a light goes on. She figures out that a call from a phone with an unknown number will not get screened and she can get through. Off to a pay phone. It works. The other end is not amused. Wife #1 strikes up a victory call. Score 1-0. The game has begun.

Wife #2 decides to become more creative. Unknown phones #1 can use?? Hmmm. Knowing generally of #1's operational range, and aware that she can "list" up to 22 numbers to be screened, #2 takes a walk and finds accessible pay phones in #1's neighborhood: gas station, convenience store, roadside pay phones, etc. When #1 tries to call, first from the gas station, then the convenience store and is unable to get through, a second light eventually goes on. She has been outfoxed by another cunning vixen. A tactical loss. Score is 1-1.

As in military strategy, the battlefield broadens. Best move for #1 is to go to the next exchange area where a call falls into the long distance category. The caller gets through. Score 2-1 but #2 catches that one quickly. Answer the phone and wait until you hear the quarters drop, then hang up. Wife #1 doesn't get through and loses her quarters. Double loss. Score now 2-3.

This could go on but the phone company is deriving additional revenue from the pay phone and isn't anxious to curtail widening of the combat zone, and #2 has a much wider field of combat to screen.

But you get the gist of the story. Any new technology changes the environment, sometimes surprisingly so, in this case to the phone company, and all involved in the process. Stay alert. The future is going to be interesting.

If you are interested in buying for peanuts, as opposed to renting forever, a "Call Identifier", the latest one I have seen is available in Vancouver from Arif Meghji at Pyramid Solutions, Phone/Fax: 604/941-9662. Prices run from $65 to just under $100 Canadian. Construction appears of high quality. Your local phone company will quote on hook-up service.

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