103 lines
5.9 KiB
Plaintext
103 lines
5.9 KiB
Plaintext
CLASS
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CLASS, or Custom Local Area Signaling Services, is coming to a neighborhood
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near you. Because of the inception of Signaling System 7, network and
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associated databases, a certain class (no pun intended) of services are being
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offered to various telco customers around the country as this is written and
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phone com- panies are desperately trying to perpetrate these expensive little
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ad-ons across the U.S. Although some states are, for the moment, effectively
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blocking them through various maneuvers in the courts.
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CLASS will do several different things, the primary one being what is known
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as CND, or as some people call it CNID or CNI. The idea used to be known as
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ANI, but the aaonym seems to have settled down somewhat to CND or CNID, these
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standing for Calling Number Display and/or Calling Number ID respectively.
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What CNI does is allow the customer to rent or purchase a little black box
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that looks like a hand calculator, which displays the number of the calling
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party after the first ring whether or not thephone is answered. A small LCD
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display provides the caller's phone number including area code, the current
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time, and the date.
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Most of the units also store about 70 num- bers in memory so if the operator
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is not home one can still see who called even if the answer- ing machine is
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stressed out. In fact, with a little creativity one can figure out who called
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and didn't leave a message by comparing messages on the answering machine or
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voice mail with the incoming call register numbers.
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CND's have generated an enormous amount of interest in the press and the
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media because of the apparent violation of privacy involved. The justification
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for this service is to stop obscene phone calls as well as letting the caller
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decide with whom he wishes to speak at any given moment. The down side
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includes several things, first and foremost being that it will: (A) cost money
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to rent this little box or pur- chase it from the phone company, (B) cost more
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money if one doesn't want one's phone number to be displayed on out-going
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calls, effectively letting the phone company collect revenues on either side
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of the transaction.
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People who are concerned with their privacy are notably aghast at this
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situation. Why should I have my number displayed if I call someone to inquire
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about a product or ask about a service or even return a call? Think some
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sleazy salesman won't call back? Think I won't immediately be placed on a
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mailing list and probably on a dial-out marketing list that will be sold to
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other vendors who want to find suckers who respond to a particular pitch?
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Bet your ass...
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CLASS also allows a number of other options including a customer originated
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trace, which means by dialing a number i.e., #57 the last call one receives
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will be immediately traced and recorded at the phone company. Of course, the
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phone company charges (at the moment, a buck) for this service and to com-
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plete the transaction one must call the phone company and ask for the number.
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This feature is designed for harassment-type callers and the phone company
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is probably going to want to know why one wants the number requested.
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A sidebar here, if one has call-waiting one can do an interesting thing with
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the CLASS concept. When you hear the call-waiting notification buzz, simply
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tell the party you are talking to that you will call them back and immediately
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hang up the phone. They will be disconnected and the phone will begin to ring
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for the person who originally clicked in. After the first ring your display
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will light up and translate the data that was sent from the calling party,
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letting you trace a call on call-waiting without ever talking to the person.
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Other items that will come along with CLASS are things like Selective Call
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Acceptance or Rejection, which allows you to automatically reject calls from
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certain numbers. Distinctive Ringing which will invoke a particular ringing
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pattem so you can tell if it's a good or bad call before even looking at the
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display, and CNDBlocking, which means the called party can program a que of
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people into his phone so when they call the number they get a recorded message
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from the phone company that says, "Party you are tryin' to reach don't want to
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talk to ya, bro," or perhaps a more politely phrased message with the same
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meaning.
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CLASS services are of interest to our business for a variety of reasons, the
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first being they can be used in a manner similar to an ANI trace or with some
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aeative plumbing, one's personal call display box can be wired into a target's
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number where it will act not only as a reversed dialed number recorder, but
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actually show where all the calls to the target number are coming from...
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The calling number display feature of the CLASS system DOES trace
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unpublished numbers as well as published numbers. It's up to the individual
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phone company whether they will be displayed on the user's display or not.
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There is no way to use a display box on a particular phone system that does
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not have the CLASS feature installed, both components are neces- sary for the
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system to function.
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BEATING THE CLASS
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If one doesn't want one's phone number to be displayed at the other end, one
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can: (A) purchase a call-blocking service from the phone company, (B) make all
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one's calls from a pay phone, (C) go through the operator to place a call, or
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(D) use a service some entrepre- neurs have come up with where the caller
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dials their 900 number and dial out on their dial tone for an additional
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charge. The other possi- bility is a creative placement of a call forward- ing
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box.
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I don't know, Yogi, everybody on the side of law and order, not to mention
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telephone employees with an eye towards their profit sharing plan, seem to
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think the CLASS system is the greatest thing since sliced bread, but it seems
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to me that it's just another step in the direction of 1984. Oh, hell, that was
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years ago, wasn't it? I guess there's a moral in there.
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