For once, Telkom makes me happy with Caller ID service<\/p>\n
By Zatni Arbi<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): You may still remember an account by an
\nanonymous letter writer that was published in the Your Letters
\ncolumn of June 3, 1999. Someone, who claimed to be a high-ranking
\npolice officer, had called him and tried to coerce him into
\nmaking financial contributions. About two years ago, I had a very
\nsimilar experience, and the caller said he was a colonel. What
\nboth of us have experienced are by no means isolated cases.<\/p>\n
In my case, it was clear that the felon just picked numbers
\nfrom the phone book. Not randomly, I suppose. My phone number was
\nstill listed under the name of the person who built the house
\nwhere we live. He had a typical Chinese-Indonesian name.<\/p>\n
I have to admit that this phony colonel managed to terrify me.
\nLuckily I finally found an escape route. I told him that I agreed
\nto donate some money but I had to call him back later as I was
\nabout to leave for a meeting at Cilangkap. He, of course, was not
\nwilling to give me his phone number.<\/p>\n
Phone abuse may be more common than what people think. At one
\npoint, my family were rudely woken up by the persistent ringing
\nof the phone at 3 a.m. When we picked up the phone and said
\n\"Hallo\", the caller just hung up. The same thing happened again
\nthe next night, and the next, and the next.<\/p>\n
Toward the end of last year, a woman made it a habit to call
\nus at least once every few days to ask the same question: \"Is
\nSien Tauw there?\" At first, we politely tried to convince her
\nthat there was nobody in our house with that name. Yet, she
\nseemed to get so much enjoyment out of asking that question of us
\nthat we eventually lost our patience. She, however, was not
\ndeterred by our increasingly rude responses and kept calling.<\/p>\n
And, to add to all the nuisance that we have had with these
\nphone abusers, a major private university in our area has also
\nclaimed that their phone numbers are xxx-xxx2-5, which
\nerroneously includes my home phone number. So, my family members
\nare now trained to be telephone operators for that university.<\/p>\n
Each time a call comes in to speak to someone from the
\n\"Fakultas Teknik\" or \"Bagian Administrasi\", we will answer
\npolitely that the correct number they should dial is xxx-xxx2 and
\nxxx-xxx5. Still, no matter how polite we try to sound in telling
\nthese callers that they are calling a residential number, there
\nare some who talk to us so rudely that, for a split second, we
\nwould wonder whether it's really worth it to try to be helpful to
\nfellow human beings.<\/p>\n
Such is the tribulation that this otherwise tremendously
\nconvenient modern amenity has brought. But, thank God, a large
\nportion of this will finally disappear. For a couple of days now
\nmy family has been enjoying Caller ID, the latest feature offered
\nby Telkom.<\/p>\n
I Know You<\/p>\n
In other parts of the world, Caller ID has been around for
\nmany years, and, in fact, I have already written about it a
\ncouple of times in this column. In the U.S., Caller ID has helped
\nprevent Pizza Hut delivery guys from climbing to a lone grandma's
\napartment with boxes of steaming Super Supreme ordered by some
\nyouth pranksters.<\/p>\n
In Singapore, Caller ID has enabled taxi companies provide
\nvery efficient services. Now, in more and more areas in Jakarta,
\nCaller ID has finally saved us from unscrupulous as well as
\nsimply rude callers.<\/p>\n
Indonesian cellular phone users have been familiar with Caller
\nID for quite a long time. Now it is beginning to be available for
\nfixed lines as well. You need a special device or special
\ntelephone that will display the number of the calling party,
\nthough.<\/p>\n
The number will be kept in the device's memory, so you can
\ncheck it later as long as it is not erased. It also helps you
\nkeep track of the outgoing calls that your teenage daughter
\nmakes, even though she makes her calls through her own extension.<\/p>\n
You will have to pay Telkom a Rp 25,000 activation fee, and a
\nRp 10,000 monthly service charge. The peace of mind this feature
\nbrings us is certainly worth more than that.<\/p>\n
My first opportunity to test the power of Caller ID came on
\nthe day the service was activated. At about 5:30 a.m., our phone
\nrang. When my wife picked up the phone and said \"Hallo\" as usual,
\nall she heard was silence. Just one minute after she hung up, the
\nphone rang again and this time it was the screeching sound of a
\nfax machine.<\/p>\n
\"Someone is trying to send us a fax,\" I tried to think
\npositively, so I activated our fax machine. Nothing came out. I
\nchecked my Caller ID display, and it showed an unfamiliar number
\n02157719xx.<\/p>\n
\"Somebody has had to stay late at the office and has decided
\nto have some fun,\" we concluded. Unfortunately, the operator at
\n108 was not allowed to give us the name of the owner. That was
\nstill OK, though, because at least we already had the number.<\/p>\n
Multiple Standards<\/p>\n
Three major standards for Caller ID protocol are being used
\nthroughout the world today, FSK and DTMF and ETSI. Japan, Britain
\nand Brazil have their own standards. Here in Indonesia, Telkom,
\nassisted by Siemens, has adopted the Bellcore FSK standard.
\nTelkom does not sell any Caller ID device, but they require that
\nyou already have the device and show them the receipt for its
\npurchase before they will activate the feature on your number.<\/p>\n
If you decide to buy a Caller ID display device abroad, you
\nhave to make sure that the device can handle FSK. More devices
\ncome with dual standards -- for example, both FSK and DTMF --
\nwith the capability to automatically detect which standard is
\nbeing used.<\/p>\n
In Jakarta, a good place to find the device is still Harco
\nGlodok. One store there offered me a full-featured Caller ID
\ndevice for Rp 100,000. I decided instead to buy a TORIPhone for
\nRp 185,000 in another store. It turned out that was not the right
\nchoice, because the phone has a rather substandard audio quality.
\nBesides, the memory can only store up to 25 numbers only. If you
\nalready have a decent telephone set, you'd be better off buying a
\nmore versatile, separate Caller ID device with more memory
\ncapacity.<\/p>\n
Incidentally, Telkom also has a list of products that they
\nhave tested. You can contact one of the service points and ask
\nthem to fax you the list of the vendors of these products.<\/p>\n
One problem I have found is that Telkom's switching sends the
\nentire number of the calling party to our devices, including the
\n021 prefix. This makes it impossible for me to use the one-touch
\nCall-Back button on the phone when the number is displayed. I
\nstill have to dial all seven or eight digits manually. When I
\nchecked with Telkom, I was told that there was no plan to
\ntruncate the area code.<\/p>\n
If you don't have Caller ID yet, call 162 and check whether
\nthis feature is already available on your public switching. Even
\nwhen the calling party manages to have their number blocked, you
\nwill still have the advantage of being informed about it in the
\ndisplay. Caller ID will significantly reduce your vulnerability.<\/p>",
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