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Caller ID Gets Wary Reaction, BOSTON (AP)
    Caller ID, a phone service touted as an electronic peephole to let
 customers see who's calling, is making its way around the country. But
 it may not become a ringing success because of privacy worries.
    The service, which displays the number and sometimes even the name
 of the caller, is available in more than 20 states and has won praise
 for deterring obscene and annoying phone calls.
    But because of privacy concerns, many states have slapped on
 restrictions that phone companies fear will undercut the service's
 value.
    "At what point does the subscriber say, `It's not worth it
 anymore?' I don't know," said Clifton Metcalf, a spokesman for
 Southern Bell in North Carolina. "We're going to find out."
    The restrictions imposed by utility regulators allow callers to
block their numbers from appearing on a display unit by the phone.
This can be done by pressing certain keys when making each call, or,
in some states, by having the line blocked off entirely from being
decoded by Caller ID.
   After the state imposed such restrictions in Massachusetts, New
England Telephone officials found them so onerous that they initially
withdrew their plans to offer the service.
   Susan Butta, a spokeswoman for New England Telephone, said
executives worried the restrictions might make the service harder to
sell. They eventually changed their minds and decided to try it.
   U.S. West Communications, which serves more than a dozen states,
decided to include the blocking options in its proposals to utility
regulators, not waiting for officials to order them, said Gwen Law, a
company project manager. Consumer advocates and civil liberties groups
say such restrictions are necessary. In Pennsylvania, the state
Supreme Court ruled this year that Caller ID without the blocking
options violated the state wiretap law.
   Critics often point to battered women or undercover police officers
as examples of people who need to keep their phone numbers secret.
   "There are some people for whom the risk of forgetting to block is
very great," said Mark Cooper, research director for the Consumer
Federation of America.
   But New Jersey Bell, which pioneered Caller ID in the late 1980s,
doesn't offer any blocking, and fewer than 1 percent of customers have
complained about phone numbers leaking out, said company spokesman
James W. Carrigan.
   On the other hand, Carrigan said the service has helped deter
nuisance calls.
   About 200,000 New Jersey Bell customers, or 4.6 percent, subscribe
to Caller ID. That compares with a 28 percent acceptance rate for Call
Waiting, which allows customers to receive more than one call at the
same time.
   Centel Corp. in Las Vegas, which serves southern Nevada, offers the
blocking options and still has more than 10 percent of its customers
subscribing.
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-- 
Dewey Coffman	dewey@ctci.com	All opinions expressed are unrelated to reality.
CTC, Inc.
"If you fail to plan, plan to fail"