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From: fish@ihu1g.UUCP (Bob Fishell)
Newsgroups: net.consumers,net.flame,net.legal
Subject: Re: Junk Phone Calls
Message-ID: <241@ihu1g.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 7-Mar-84 23:24:04 EST
Article-I.D.: ihu1g.241
Posted: Wed Mar  7 23:24:04 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 8-Mar-84 19:27:30 EST
References: teldata.253, <2564@utah-cs.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 23

(oo)
I don't know about legal solutions, but technological ones are not too far
off.  There was a press release some time back announcing the successful
trial of a new telephone networking system developed here at Bell Labs.
Among the many things this system will let you do is reject phone calls
originating from certain numbers.  If you get an offending call, all you
need do is push a few buttons, and no one dialing from that number
will ever be able to reach you again.  I can't give out many other details,
for one, because I don't know, and also because I'm not supposed to anyway,
but you can look for this service to be more widely available by the end
of the decade.

As a stopgap, I just have all of my phones save one silenced.  I can make
calls on them, but they won't ring.  The one phone that does ring is wired
to a switch I use to cut off the outside world when I'm eating, etc.  Most
nuisance callers don't call after 9:00 PM, so I have my friends trained to
call after then.  On those occasions when some obnoxious solicitor does get
through, I am EXTREMELY rude with them, and that at least gives me a little
satisfaction.
-- 

                               Bob Fishell
                               ihnp4!ihu1g!fish