Caller ID - service or phone feature?

Question

do i just go out and buy a phone with "caller id" feature? or do i ahve to pay service provider for it? or both? thanks

Answer 1

You have to do both.

Answer 2

All telephone calls transmit caller ID information, by default.

The first trick to accessing Caller ID features is to first, buy a telephone that has Caller ID display (most phones do now days).

The reason you can't get the signals on your caller ID phone is because your phone service provider is "blocking" caller ID functionality, that exists by default..... why?  Because it is how they get to charge you more money.

So, 2nd trick is to subscribe to your phone company Caller ID service.... usually for a premium over basic rate.

One interesting point to note is that "most" VoIP "home phone" replacement services provide Caller ID, Voice Mail, Call Forwarding, Call Return, etc, etc... for FREE.

Whereas, your local ILEC PSTN phone company wants to charge you for every little extra feature for a higher price.

On VoIP lines, all the data already exists on your Internet connection data and most VoIP adapters (ATA) have all the bells and whistles features built-in to enable access to the data and features... for no extra cost.

Answer 3

You have to do both

Answer 4

YOu will need both, and also be aware that the phone company (at least AT&T does this) charges for caller id and then has an additional charge if you want the name display as well.  I.e. caller id gives you the phone number of the person calling while the name adds the "name" on the account.  There are some cool phones out there with talking id that will announce the name of the person calling - of course you have to have caller id with name to use that feature.

Answer 5

u would have to do both, sometimes they have bundle pkgs from phone service that can do callwaiting/caller ID***get that one***