THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 8, 1995 TAG: 9512080485
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
Telephone customers who subscribe to Caller ID services still aren't getting the full benefit of a recent federal order that was intended to make the service more useful.
Paul Miller, a Bell Atlantic Corp. spokesman, said this week that several large long-distance carriers have been exempted temporarily from a rule that required them to help pass on the phone numbers of callers to Caller ID customers. Sprint Corp. is the largest of the carriers granted the extension by the Federal Communications Commission.
Beginning Dec. 1, Sprint and its long-distance brethren were to have passed onto local phone companies like Bell Atlantic or GTE Corp. the phone numbers of callers.
With the change, the phone numbers of many callers from faraway states are now identifiable to Bell Atlantic's or GTE's Caller ID subscribers in Virginia. Previously, Caller ID generally displayed only the numbers of local callers.
Most long-distance providers - including AT&T Corp. and MCI Communications Corp. - complied with the federal order. But Sprint and several others persuaded the FCC to give them more time.
Eileen Doherty, Sprint's manager of national media relations, said the company has had some ``glitches'' in the computer software that would enable it to turn over the numbers to local carriers. ``We're looking toward the end of March to have it completed by then,'' she said.
Miller, of Bell Atlantic, said his company has been ``getting a lot of calls from customers saying their Caller ID is not working right.''
He said most of the problems should be solved in the next several months. But he pointed out that numbers from callers in some areas served by local phone companies lacking sophisticated computer equipment may still not make their way to Caller ID subscribers in Virginia.
Telephone customers who subscribe to Caller ID services still aren't getting the full benefit of a recent federal order that was intended to make the service more useful.
Paul Miller, a Bell Atlantic Corp. spokesman, said this week that several large long-distance carriers have been exempted temporarily from a rule that required them to help pass on the phone numbers of callers to Caller ID customers. Sprint Corp. is the largest of the carriers granted the extension by the Federal Communications Commission.
Beginning Dec. 1, Sprint and its long-distance brethren were to have passed onto local phone companies like Bell Atlantic or GTE Corp. the phone numbers of callers.
With the change, the phone numbers of many callers from faraway states are now identifiable to Bell Atlantic's or GTE's Caller ID subscribers in Virginia. Previously, Caller ID generally displayed only the numbers of local callers.
Most long-distance providers - including AT&T Corp. and MCI Communications Corp. - complied with the federal order. But Sprint and several others persuaded the FCC to give them more time.
Eileen Doherty, Sprint's manager of national media relations, said the company has had some ``glitches'' in the computer software that would enable it to turn over the numbers to local carriers. ``We're looking toward the end of March to have it completed by then,'' she said.
Miller, of Bell Atlantic, said his company has been ``getting a lot of calls from customers saying their Caller ID is not working right.''
He said most of the problems should be solved in the next several months. But he pointed out that numbers from callers in some areas served by local phone companies lacking sophisticated computer equipment may still not make their way to Caller ID subscribers in Virginia.
KEYWORDS: CALLER ID by CNB