Phone giants' rising rates questioned

NEW YORK — AT&T and Verizon are raising prices for caller ID and other popular phone services by as much as 300%, even as they continue to push regulators to loosen up because of increased competition.

AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ) have argued they need pricing flexibility to compete with cable TV and others offering Internet-based phone services. Dozens of states have acquiesced, giving carriers freedom to jack up prices.

In California this month, AT&T raised prices for several stand-alone features: Anonymous call rejection now costs $5 from $1.90; caller ID rose to $9.99 from $6.17. Some local toll calls — calls that aren't considered long-distance but don't qualify as local — jumped by more than 200%.

In Ohio, AT&T raised the price of call forwarding and three-way calling from $4 each to $5.99. Automatic call back now costs $1.99 per use, up from 70 cents.

Verizon has made similar moves. Call forwarding now costs $3 a month in Ohio, a 300% increase from 75 cents. Call waiting is now $5 a month, up from $3.

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Comcast Now the Fourth Largest Phone Company in the U.S.

In addition to unveiling Fancast, a new TV-and-movie search site, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts dropped another zinger during his CES keynote on Tuesday. According to Roberts, his company recently jumped ahead of Embarq -- a Sprint spinoff-- to become the fourth-largest residential phone service provider in the United States.

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Cablevision Offers On-Screen Caller ID

NEW YORK — Couch potato alert: If you get telephone service through your cable TV provider, you don't have to get up while watching TV to see who's calling.
Several cable companies have been experimenting with a feature that will display an incoming caller's name and number in a little box in the corner of the TV screen.
Cablevision Systems Corp., which operates around the New York City area, has offered this feature in several areas and now says that as of Friday it will be available to all 3 million of its cable television customers.
Comcast Corp., the largest cable TV operator in the country, offers the service in one market _ which the company declined to identify _ and has plans to offer it elsewhere later.
Time Warner Cable Inc. offers it in several areas.
Cablevision says its on-screen caller ID _ including an option to turn off the notifications _ carries no additional charge. About half of Cablevision's television customers also subscribe to its digital phone service.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Caller ID spoofing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Caller ID spoofing is the practice of causing the telephone network to display a number on the recipient's caller ID display which is not that of the actual originating station; the term is commonly used to describe situations in which the motivation is considered nefarious by the speaker. Just as e-mail spoofing can make it appear that a message came from any e-mail address the sender chooses, caller ID spoofing can make a call appear to have come from any phone number the caller wishes. Because people are prone to assume a call is coming from the number (and hence, the associated person, or persons), this can call the service's value into question."

Caller ID spoofing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Caller ID - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Caller ID (caller identification or CID, and more properly calling number identification - CNID) is a telephony service that transmits the caller's telephone number to the called party's telephone equipment during the ringing signal or when the call is being set up but before the call is answered. Where available, Caller ID can also provide a name associated with the calling telephone number. The information made available to the called party is visible on a small liquid crystal display imbedded on the telephone, or on a separate unit which is connected to the telephone.
Caller ID is often helpful for tracing down prank calls and telemarketers. The concept behind caller ID is the value of informed consent; however, it also poses problems for personal privacy.

Caller ID - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia