Re: Is Anonymous Communication only for "Criminals"?

["Robert A. Costner" <pooh@efga.org>]

At 10:56 AM 12/20/97 -0700, Tim May wrote:
>I assumed a pay phone was Just
>Another Phone Number.)

My caller ID unit often identifies an incoming call as "Payphone".

I also had an interesting thing happen to me about ten years ago.  My home
phone got listed as a payphone.  When I moved and asked for a phone number,
I was told none were available.  The area I moved into was the fastest
growing section of the fastest growing county in the country for two or
more years running.  It took about a month to get a phone number from an
exchange that was from an area several miles form me.  Then an odd thing
happened.  I never got a phone bill.

I forget the exact details, but after several months of "free" telephone
service, my phone went dead one day.  When I called to inquire, I was told
that my number was a pay phone, not a residential number.  They finally
fixed things up, and got my service restored.  But there appears to be a
database field that says a number is or isn't a pay phone.


  -- Robert Costner                  Phone: (770) 512-8746
     Electronic Frontiers Georgia    mailto:pooh@efga.org  
     http://www.efga.org/            run PGP 5.0 for my public key