CALLER ID TO HINGE ON SURVEY\Phone companies await approval by state PUC.Byline: Dawn Yoshitake Daily News Staff Writer A service that identifies telephone numbers of incoming calls may get hung up if regulators believe residents don't understand their privacy options. Telephone companies will be able to offer the caller-ID service to California consumers and businesses as early as June 1. Phone numbers of incoming calls - including unpublished numbers - will be displayed on special telephones or boxes. But before telephone companies like GTE GTE General Telephone & Electronics GTE Génie Thermique et Énergie (French) GTE Gas Turbine Engine GTE Global Tropospheric Experiment GTE Geothermal Energy GTE Gas Turbine Efficiency plc (Sweden & USA) and Pacific Bell can offer such services in that state, California Public Utility Commission officials will assess whether consumers have a clear understanding of the service and know how to block the release of their telephone number if they want to maintain their privacy. To bring consumers up to speed, telephone companies are revving up education campaigns. State officials in the coming months will conduct surveys to determine whether those campaigns are effective, PUC (Public Utility Commission) A regulatory body in every state in the U.S. that governs public utilities within its jurisdiction such as electricity, gas, oil, sewer, water, transportation and telephone service. Some states call it the Public Service Commission (PSC). spokeswoman Kyle DeVine said Thursday. Initial PUC survey guidelines guidelines, n.pl a set of standards, criteria, or specifications to be used or followed in the performance of certain tasks. call for an awareness level of 70 percent by survey respondents In the context of marketing research, a representative sample drawn from a larger population of people from whom information is collected and used to develop or confirm marketing strategy. on issues such as disclosure of their telephone numbers to those with the service and their right to block that. "An awareness level of that size is pretty impossible, no matter what the event. . . . I've heard not more than 65 percent of the people know who Santa Claus Santa Claus: see Nicholas, Saint. Santa Claus jolly, gift-giving figure who visits children on Christmas Eve. [Christian Tradition: NCE, 1937] See : Christmas Santa Claus is and not over 70 percent know our president," said Joan Mataraci, Pacific Bell's caller-ID product manager. The PUC is revising its plans and may extend its June 1 deadline or lower its awareness-level requirements, she added. Pacific Bell's benchmark survey before its education campaign showed an awareness level of less than 25 percent, Mataraci said. Caller ID A telephone company service that sends the caller's telephone number between the first and second ring of the call. If the calling number is not blocked, the calling number is displayed on the handset or base station of the called party. is offered in 48 states. But residents of those states can't access telephone numbers of Californians who call them. That, however, will change June 1. Californians' telephone numbers will be displayed when making calls to out-of-state businesses and residents who have signed up for the service, even if Californians aren't able yet to subscribe to Verb 1. subscribe to - receive or obtain regularly; "We take the Times every day" subscribe, take buy, purchase - obtain by purchase; acquire by means of a financial transaction; "The family purchased a new car"; "The conglomerate acquired a new company"; a similar service in their home state. |
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