[geeks] Cell phones: block incoming calls

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: der Mouse <mouse at Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>
>Date: 2007/12/03 Mon PM 03:33:40 CST
>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] Cell phones: block incoming calls

>> After some bitching and moaning and escalating, the supervisor told
>> me that to block incoming calls for mobile (but not landline) numbers
>> was against federal law,
>
>It might help to ask them for a citation for the relevant statute.

It might not make a difference - the phone company doesn't "owe" him the ability to block unwanted callers, they either offer it or not...

I'd wonder where the intelligence for such a block would be if not on the phone? As I understand it mobile phone calls are routed differently from wired/land line calls. By this I mean when you make your call, your call setup information is sent out to a central switch that knows what cell your phone is in, then routes the call to that cell for completion. The ability to block that caller would have to be in the "central" lookup server, and to add that amount of processing could prove to be quite expensive, since it needs to do a couple database dips to make it happen (is called number blocked? If so, is this caller blocked for this called number? I think they want their transactions to be as quick as possible, and you've just added processing overhead to every call made...

If you've got these kinds of problems, a smart phone may be the best answer...

Lionel