Text 3754, 96 rader
Skriven 2012-09-10 11:11:17 av mark lewis (1:3634/12.0)
   Kommentar till text 3752 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
Ärende: Unlisted phone numbers
==============================
RB>> As I mentioned, unsolicited calls are illegal in Germany.

ml> so that sounds like i can't just look up your number and give you a
ml> ring out of the blue and having never done it before or even asked...

 RB> Don't be funny ;-) 

haha... i wasn't actually... you said "unsolicited" and anyone just calling
without an invite is "unsolicited" OB-)

 RB> Private calls are never a problem, but if you're selling things, 
 RB> doing a survey for some institute or company, or similar stuff 
 RB> (trying to get you to vote for someone would definitely be 
 RB> included), you're breaking German law.

i wish that would apply over here...

RB>> When the origin phone number has been suppressed, the penalty is
RB>> greater (the caller will not only be fined and warned, but will lose
RB>> his phone connection as well) - but of course it's also more
RB>> difficult to get the details of who's calling to be able to file a
RB>> complaint.

ml> no caller-id?

 RB> That's right. It can be suppressed so that you don't see it at the
 RB> receiving end (in the case of ISDN phones and probably also DSL
 RB> phones as well as cell phones). Which is OK for private calls -
 RB> except that many people won't accept calls from phones with a
 RB> suppressed caller-id. But this doesn't apply when you use analog
 RB> phones, like I do (when I went to ISDN I didn't want to throw all
 RB> my analog phones away, and so I use an A/D converter (what the
 RB> Germans call a "TK-Anlage", not sure of the name in English). It
 RB> hooks up to the ISDN line of the splitter, which in turn is hooked
 RB> up to the DSL line. It's harder to describe than to hook it up.

i think i know what you are talking about... it is the same thing that you use
if you want/need to use analogue modems on ISDN lines... even on our analogue
stuff we can suppress our outbound caller-id with one of those * or # codes i
spoke of earlier... i'm too lazy right now to get the phone book and look them
up but they are fairly consistent across telcos and i think also cellphones...
i know that i have the same or more capabilities on my cell than i do on our
analogue phones but that's because we're not going to pay them for all these
things that should already be included by default since they've been available
for as long as they have... they still want like $2 a month for caller-id, $3 a
month for call waiting and so on... as much whining as the telcos are doing
about loosing customers who are going totally cellphone because it is cheaper
and they get more services, you'd think they'd learn and make these things
standard at the base price... especially since the technology and equipment has
already been paid for several times over after all these years...

[trim]

RB>> For the extra-cautious, there are systems that will automatically
RB>> reject any calls where the origin phone number is suppressed. But
RB>> normally they aren't required.

ml> if i'm reading this correctly, that's built into our codes... just
ml> like setting call-forwarding and call-blocking, i think this is called
ml> call-rejecting...

 RB> Sounds like the same thing. You can turn it on or off, I think...
 RB> I've never really investigated this because I use an analog phone
 RB> system with analog phones here, and they don't show the number of
 RB> the caller anyway.

that's why we have those caller-id boxes ;)

RB>> And anyone using a "computerized dialer" for unsolicited calls might
RB>> even get more than a fine. Such stuff is unknown here.

ml> it was unknown over here until it got quite flagrant... there might be
ml> some use of it over there but it is used in a different manner than
ml> here... we have schools using them to send important notices to
ml> parents and you can sign up for the weather groups of your favorite TV
ml> station to notify you of bad or severe weather in your area...
ml> churches also use them to notify folks of important notices or
ml> gatherings or cancellations...

 RB> No, we have nothing at all like that here. It might be legal if you
 RB> voluntarily signed up for it, but I've never heard of anything like
 RB> you describe. Since so many people have Internet here, it's more
 RB> usual to send an email (with CCs as necessary).

that is an option these days... if you want to provide an email address for
such... i have several but i reserve them for only certain uses... it took me a
long time to drive the spammers out of my original email address which i've had
since ~'95 or '96... i spent hours a day deciphering header lines and tracing
routes to make the reports... it got easier over time and tools were developed
to do a lot of the grunt work but i did recover my address and rarely get any
spam in it at all these days... my other addresses are also pretty much clear
but that's due to the better filtering and detection techniques used today :)

)\/(ark

 * Origin:  (1:3634/12)