Caller Id

In a victory for privacy advocates, the Public Service Commission has ordered the Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. of Maryland to allow people to block the display of their phone numbers to subscribers of the Caller ID service.A subscriber to the service currently sees the number of the caller's phone on a display screen next to the subscriber's phone.Under the commission order issued today, C&P must provide a two- or three-digit number to those who do not want their numbers displayed when they dial a subscriber to the Caller ID service.

He pulls to the curb in his dented sedan, grabs a bag containing the extra-large pepperoni and strides to the front of a dilapidated-looking rowhouse. Pizza deliveryman Shakeel Anjum knows too well that criminals have attacked people in his line of work several times recently, and he's working at a brisk pace. He rings the bell and gets no response. He calls inside on his cellphone and gets no answer. That's a bad sign to Anjum, who has been robbed and assaulted on the job. He returns to his car, starts it up and drives away.

While phone companies and civil libertarians square off over the virtues of Caller ID, Corporate America is stockpiling information about its customers by using a similar number-identification technology.The corporate version of Caller ID, known as Automatic Number Identification, is sold by the long-distance telephone companies to a range of commercial customers. Like Caller ID, ANI passes along the numbers -- listed and unlisted -- of incoming calls to commercial customers without the consent or knowledge of callers.

Maryland utility regulators are expanding their investigation into Verizon's 911 service after some emergency calls came through without caller ID or location information. On May 30, police and fire dispatchers in Maryland and Virginia did not receive two key pieces of information that usually accompany an emergency call: the caller's location and the phone number they were calling from, according to the Maryland Public Service Commission. The problem lasted for three hours and affected 911 calls from IP networks and wireless phones, which, according to cell phone industry research, now account for 70 percent of all 911 calls.

Public reaction to the controversial Caller ID telephone service is about evenly split between those who like it and those who want to get rid of it, according to Frank Heintz, chairman of the Public Service Commission."

If you're a complaint desk representative at Acme Exploding Bird Trap Co.'s Baltimore office, you will soon be able to look at your telephone and see that your disgruntled caller isn't just 555-1234. You'll know it's Coyote, Wile E.Starting Dec. 1, Bell Atlantic Corp. will offer customers throughout Maryland an enhanced version of its Caller ID service that lets customers see the names as well as the phone numbers of their callers before picking up the phone.The Caller ID Deluxe service, introduced on a trial basis in Virginia earlier this year, will display the name that appears on the caller's telephone account, up to 15 characters, with the last name appearing first.

People who don't like the idea of their phone numbers, unpublished or not, showing up on Caller ID devices across the state will get some relief starting Sunday in the form of free blocking.In keeping with last month's order from the Public Service Commission, C&P Telephone Co. plans to start offering free, per-call blocking on Sunday, said commission spokesman Frank Fulton.Touch-tone phone users need only dial a three-digit code -- star, 6,7 -- before placing a call to ensure that their telephone number doesn't pop up on a Caller ID device, which is used in connection with C&P's Caller ID service.

Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. of Maryland does not have the technology to provide blocking service for Caller ID subscribers and will ask the Public Service Commission to reconsider its order that such a service be implemented, a C&P spokeswoman said.The commission yesterday ordered C&P to offer callers a free code that would allow them to keep their numbers private when dialing those equipped with Caller ID, a service that displays the caller's number.While Caller ID has been marketed as a way to prevent harassing telephone calls, it is viewed with alarm by privacy advocates, especially those who work with victims of domestic violence.

Are you getting your money's worth from caller ID? Some callers can't be identified because their information is blocked or unavailable, but in other cases the callers aren't named because the customer's phone company simply doesn't want to spend the money to obtain the data. A small Boston Globe test of caller ID accuracy found several instances in which Verizon Communications and Comcast Corp. didn't provide a caller's name because they didn't want to pay the extra money. The price is minimal on a per-call basis - often a penny or less a call - but spread across a telecommunications giant's many customers, it can quickly run into the tens of millions of dollars.

Caller ID, C & P Telephone's service that allows Maryland customers to know who is calling even before they pick up the phone, could be restricted by the Maryland Public Service Commission even before it's available to county residents.The service, which is expected to be available in Carroll by early next year, is part of Bell Atlantic's IQ Network of high-tech phone functions.In addition to letting you know who is calling, it also allows those you call to see your number as it flashes on a screen.

Are you getting your money's worth from caller ID? Some callers can't be identified because their information is blocked or unavailable, but in other cases the callers aren't named because the customer's phone company simply doesn't want to spend the money to obtain the data. A small Boston Globe test of caller ID accuracy found several instances in which Verizon Communications and Comcast Corp. didn't provide a caller's name because they didn't want to pay the extra money. The price is minimal on a per-call basis - often a penny or less a call - but spread across a telecommunications giant's many customers, it can quickly run into the tens of millions of dollars.

When James Madison wrote the First Amendment, presumably he had no idea that one day it would protect fundraisers who call your house, obtain a donation for what you thought was a good cause and then pocket most of the money. But that's what the amendment does, to the lasting shame of the charity industry and the judges who confused misleading telemarketing spiels with sacred free speech. In a 1988 case involving Baltimore's National Federation of the Blind, the Supreme Court blessed schemes in which only a few pennies on each donated dollar end up with a nonprofit.

If you have only one or two telephone jacks, in odd places, in your house, Siemens Gigaset SL3501 expandable cordless telephone system ($220) might appeal to you. Once you buy the SL3501 base kit, you can create wireless connections with up to four Gigaset SL30 telephones ($150) - or any Siemens 4000 or 4200 series telephone handset. Just plug in your SL3501 base station to the telephone jack, then find locations for the handsets. You'll need a nearby electrical outlet for each phone station; these recharge the handset battery in each handset.

For those of us who know how to save a buck and more efficiently use technology, caller identification boxes seem like a mighty waste of money. After all, an answering machine allows you to screen calls without having to squint at a little box with a telephone number on it to figure out whether you want to pick up or not. Nevertheless, the Olympia OL3000 InfoGlobe ($50) was such a neat gadget that I went ahead and sprang for Caller ID on my home telephone just to see it in action. With a brilliant floating LED display that shows telephone numbers, time and date of calls, current date and day, the Globe made Caller ID worthwhile for my middle-aged eyes.

Flower power is blossoming for a new generation of girls with large daisies and tulips in bold hot pinks, oranges and yellows showing up on bed sheets, comforters, rugs, frames, shelves and desk sets. Target (below right) offers a "Flowers Etc." bed in a bag for $79, which has matching furniture. Hecht's "Pick A Petal Ensemble" starts at $99 for a comforter, bed sheets, sham and skirt. American Girl (top right) features a "Daisy" three-piece bed set at $120. Sears is spreading its garden theme with tulips, daisies and butterflies and in items ranging from $39.99 for comforters and sheets to a $24.99 butterfly rug. Stop and smell the flowers at these stores or check them out online at www.target.

Subsidiary launched in Columbia to aid security on Internet PricewaterhouseCoopers has launched a new subsidiary, beTRUSTed. The company, with headquarters in Columbia, will provide digital certificates for businesses hoping to conduct secure Internet transactions. Information: www.betrusted.com. Technology firm OK'd to sell phone system MIT Group, a technology company based in Columbia, has received authorization to sell 3Com NBX 100 Business Phone Systems. The all-in-one system includes voice mail, automated attendant, Caller ID, conferencing, call forwarding, messaging and speed dialing.

ONE OF THE WORST cases of phone harassment I know of involved a young woman whose husband died suddenly and unexpectedly.Even before the funeral was over, the calls started coming to the woman's home from a man who made cruel and sordid jokes about her loss.It was obvious that the man had known her husband and hadn't liked him. But the dead man had been in a business that brought him in contact with hundreds of people. Some were competitors. Some were people he had fired or hadn't hired. A few were disgruntled customers.

Love it or hate it, Caller ID is here to stay.And now, the nation's phone companies have gone back to Bellcore, the original architect of the technology, to see what it can do for an encore.According to Bellcore, you ain't seen nothing yet.The company, the research arm of the seven regional telephone companies, is busy working on a slew of technological enhancements that would greatly extend the notion of Caller ID, which shows the originating number of incoming calls.Elena Worrall, director of voice services for Bellcore, said researchers can tweak the original technology to come up with as many variations on the Caller ID theme as demand warrants.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The South might summon up an image of friendly front porches and "welcome y'all" openness.But Southerners don't take kindly to phone calls disturbing them at home.More so than other Americans, Carolinians and other Southerners have Caller ID so they know who's calling before picking up, a new study says.And now BellSouth is offering a way to check calls without moving a muscle -- the caller's number pops right up on the TV screen. "The ultimate couch potato's telephone gift," spokeswoman Hope Lanier said.

The pizza delivery rush usually begins about 4 p.m., just before rush-hour commuters make their slow crawl home and night falls on the suburbs.For delivery drivers, the early hours are the calm before the storm, when running steaming hot pizza pies -- and Chinese food and fried chicken -- goes at breakneck speed until well after midnight.But delivery drivers in Howard County have to contend with something besides bad weather and stingy tippers.Last week, Martha Lunsford, 30, a Papa John's driver, was shot in the jaw at point-blank range in the parking lot of an apartment complex on Turnabout Lane in Columbia's Harper's Choice village after she was robbed of $20.Delivering pizzas has gotten scary, said Jeff Benson, 20, a driver for Domino's Pizza in Columbia.