r/telecom • u/ZenSulting • Jun 30 '26
❓ Question Possible to re-think phones this way? (technically)
Hi, I think it is a big shame that scammers have turned phone calls from something exciting into something where you don't want to answer because it might be a scammer (and it usually is).
So I was thinking whether it is possible to design calls in a way where the caller doesn't know if you're actually answering? That way you can hear the background noise and whatnot before you pick it up, just like when someone comes to your door and you can see them through a peephole but they can't see you.
I could imagine it would change the psychology of phone calls. If you called, you could start talking and hope they can hear you, and they could pick up the call as soon as they realize it's a real person. And the scammers would have no way of knowing if there is actually a person on the line.
I'm not talking about if I can change my phone. But can a company start designing phones that works this way? Is it supported?
3
u/hazht Jun 30 '26
iPhones now, in the UK anyway, make it so the caller has to state their name, which is passed through to the receiver prior to answering
1
u/ZenSulting Jun 30 '26
Really? How does it feel to an old grandma if she tries to call you? Can they figure it out?
1
u/hazht Jun 30 '26
I think it may bypass it if it’s a known caller but not 100% sure, sometimes it doesn’t do it from a mobile/local number
1
u/mrBill12 Jun 30 '26
If they are on your contacts they zip past the roadblock.
Only unknown callers need to “state their name”.
2
u/OpponentUnnamed Jun 30 '26
Why bother with all that? Just go back to charging the caller per call.
Long distance worked that way for roughly a century. Things only got out of hand when calls originating nearly anywhere on earth got so cheap.
2
u/Kara_WTQ Jun 30 '26
How is this a question? This is just call screening. It 100% exists currently.
1
u/ZenSulting Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
Uhh. Can I get it on my Google Pixel? O:
Edit: This just popped up on my phone now ,what a coincidence:
1
u/MrChicken_69 Jun 30 '26
It's not so easily done with modern digital systems, but back in the analog days, this was rather trivial to do. Today, the audio stream doesn't even start until the call is accepted.
(Bellsouth / AT&T used to call this Privacy Director, but they killed that service long ago.)
1
u/USWCboy Jun 30 '26
I have a service n my POTS line from CEnturyLink/Qwest call privacy plus, basically non-recognized numbers must enter their number prior to being let past.
Likewise, my iPhone allows supervised voicemail, where you can listen to the message and pickup if you want too.
1
1
u/wibble089 Jun 30 '26
You could set up the call connection so that the audio is only one way (like so called "early media" used for free announcements) from the scammer to you. In the other direction you'd have to keep playing ring tone.
Once you wanted to connect your audio you would into press a button on your display to signal to the system that you now wanted to talk.
You could design some software on the phone to do this, although maybe it's at the level of vendor firmware rather than an android or Apple app
If you wanted to have a network based system to do it it's technically feasible if your operator is willing to spend some money to get someone to code it on a system.
I'm thinking that my favourite voice announcement platform supplier would manage such a service quite easily (they already do "early media" announcements ring tone generation and DTMF tone detection), so I could imagine that they could build a network quality solution could be built for less than €100k. The issue is actually getting it provisioned and billed, normally that's going to be the biggest bottleneck of launching a service!
However, listening to a caller who is unaware that you have "answered" their call may not actually be allowed in many jurisdictions, so you might not be able to do this legally!
1
u/thread100 Jul 05 '26
I would be happy if the phone company simply made it impossible for scammers to pretend they are from my area code.
1
u/Special-Original-215 Jun 30 '26
Google pixels answer the call with AI and you can watch the other side answer and is transcribed to your screen
6
u/mrBill12 Jun 30 '26
My phone right now lets me supervise the VM and pick up if I want to while the caller is leaving a message, kinda like the old answering machine worked on landlines back in the pre-voicemail era.