We deployed support for Anonymous Call Rejection in our voice network and management tools this morning. When enabled, ACR prevents calls from being received where the calling party has blocked their outbound caller-id. Users can enable or disable ACR in the voice membertools at https://members.sonic.net/voice/settings/ or by dialing *77 and *88. For more information please see https://wiki.sonic.net/wiki/Anonymous_call_rejection and https://forums.sonic.net/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=821
Does the blocked caller receive some sort of notification as to why their call is being rejected?
Yes, the caller hears a recording telling them that the number they have dialed does not accept calls from callers who have blocked their number and that they should unblock their number and dial again.
AWESOME, thank you!
A good step in the right direction.
What is an “Anonymous Call” compared to the other types of calls which use misleading caller-id numbers like ‘000-000-0000’ or ‘123-456-7890’, or simply appear on my phone as a bunch of box characters?
Will Anonymous Call Rejection allow me to block these other fraudulent calls as well?
Stefan, an Anonymous call is a call where the calling party has specifically blocked their caller-id information from being provided. It does not help in situations where the caller-id information has been forged or is otherwise bogus like “000-000-0000” or “999-999-9999”. We are committed to deploying more advanced call blocking capabilities but have some technical concerns that we need to run down before we can deploy anything.
When the caller is told they need to unblock their number, are they given instructions as to how to do that?
Not at this time, but we the final recording will likely include instructions to use *82. The only concern is that this may or may not be universally correct instructions.
Folks –
Primary Comment – YAY! Primary Concern – The recording played when blocking a call MUST give the code for unblocking or I wouldn’t use ACR because of the chance that important calls could be blocked and lost. If the code is not universal that might be mentioned in the recording so callers can contact their phone company if the standard code doesn’t work.