John Levine says,
In other words, per-line blocking is a bad idea because subscribers are too dumb to unblock calls when they want to unblock them, although they're not [too] dumb to block calls when they want to block them.
To me the question is, why can't the phone company provide options for blocking-on-all-but-911-calls, and unlisted-except-for-911? More precisely, why can't the FCC allow for this simple possibility?
Steve, in the case of Southwestern Bell ( and, I believe, the other local phone companies as well) per line blocking will not work at all on: 1-700 numbers 1-800 numbers 1-900 numbers 976 numbers 911 (and some other special purpose numbers too). For that matter, the *XX option won't block such calls either. It gets worse...the long distance companies have the _policy_ that when a number appears on your phone bill, the person being billed gets to know who it goes to. So...when you dial an 800 number, not only is it VERY possible they see a display with your number therein, but they can go to their monthly billing and get info about who you are despite having line blocking, call blocking, and non-published number status. Nice, huh? Regards, Dave