background: This company lets users of _some_ cellular phones, when receiving a "blocked-CNID" call, hit a few buttons, and then, through some magic, the CNID appears.
I've just duplicated the probable sequence using my own cellphone, (without using TelTech) and yes, I was able to get the "blocked" CNID to appear.
The trick, so to speak, is two fold:
a: when you "bounce" or "forward" a call aimed at a cellphone (at least of some companies), that second call is treated by the phone network, in many aspects, as a brand new one from the original caller - but this time to the third party. Hence the CNID is transmitted (unless blocked) to that third party.
b: calls to "toll free" numbers such as "1-800" _do_ pass along the CNID even when "blocked". (ok, often it's ANI rather than CNID, but the concept is the same).
So... I set up my cell phone to bounce (when I hit a key) the calls to my own toll free number [a], which routed to my landline. I then made some tests.
First, calling my cellphone using a "blocked" CNID (by prepending the "*67) did, as expected, get me a "private call" (that is, no CNID) on the display.
I then made another blocked call to the cellphone, which, as before, got a "private" flag. I "bounced" the call to my tollfree number, which routed to my landline. And eyup, a couple of seconds later my landline rang _and_ it displayed the CNID.
Finally, I reset my tollfree number to route to my cellphone. I wasn't sure whether I could "bounce" a call from my cellphone, out to the tollfree number, and then back to my cellphone.
It worked. When I called my cellphone (again, with a blocked CNID), the initial display said "private". I hit the "bounce" key, it routed out _and back_ through the tollfree vendor, and eyup, I got to see the CNID.
[a] I use "kall8" as my "tollfree" supplier. Their rates are decent, although not the greatest. Their key advantage is their realtime web-based control page, letting you designate the "real" number the tollfree one routes to with just a few clickthroughs. They also have very good management options - such as deciding which areas can get through to you and which should be blocked, also via that real time interface.Oh, and the calls I made immediately showed up on their web page, and the billing info also appeared in my e-mail inbox a moment later. This included the CNID...
No other connection with them except as a satisfied customer. _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key snipped-for-privacy@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]
***** Moderator's Note *****Privacy, like spam, is an arms race. The US/Canada phone system uses a "Payee wins" paradigm, where the company paying for the call gets to know which number dialed it even if the caller doesn't like that; ergo, toll-free numbers pass along ANI info.
In the future, however, we might change to a bidding model, where a caller can pay more for privacy than a recipient is willing to bid to know the number.
Bill Horne Temporary Moderator
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