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Re:The most insane "robocall mitigation plans" that telcos f... by rblatz on Wednesday October 18, 2023 @11:13AM (#37929837)
It’s to the point people don’t answer their phones due to the massive amount of spam calls. The network is losing relevance due to the lack of regulation.
Re:The most insane "robocall mitigation plans" that telcos f... by LoganDark on Wednesday October 18, 2023 @11:48AM (#37930405)
As someone who never picks up their phone unless it's scheduled prior, I can confirm that people like me exist.
Re:The most insane "robocall mitigation plans" that telcos f... by LeifCarrotson on Wednesday October 18, 2023 @12:52PM (#37931378)
My wife has used manufacturer-provided settings to configure her iPhone to not even ring or give her a "missed call" notification when she gets a call from a number not in her contacts. It's not losing relevance, it's lost relevance so long ago that 5-year-old phones were designed with features that would win business from consumers who recognized that it was poorly regulated.

An element of our younger siblings' (Gen Z) entire culture is a fear of/avoidance towards making and taking phone calls. Network-effect ecosystems have grown and developed because POTS is so bad.

The only people left with landlines that lack caller ID and 'suspicious caller' filtering are the elderly, where they're continuously preyed upon by spammers.

Re:The most insane "robocall mitigation plans" that telcos f... by flyinghamster on Wednesday October 18, 2023 @01:12PM (#37931641)
Not only that, but even when the landline has Caller ID, there's no guarantee that the numbers you see have any relation to who is actually calling you. Even worse, landlines charge you extra for the privilege of inaccurate Caller ID. When I finally ditched my landline and moved it over to VoIP, AT&T's monthly fee for CID was greater than the entire monthly cost of my VoIP provider.

A shame, since if there was one thing the landline phone network was, it was reliable - in a way that cable can't even hope to match. Too bad that it got to be reliable for scammers as well.

Re:The most insane "robocall mitigation plans" that telcos f... by JumpCrisscross on Wednesday October 18, 2023 @02:57PM (#37933084)
> when she gets a call from a number not in her contacts. It's not losing relevance, it's lost relevance so long ago

This isn't the network losing relevance, she's literally still using it. She's just gatekeeping with her contacts.

I'm not saying we don't need to clamp down. But the downside of clamping down too hard is the calls from contacts in her address book not getting connected. That, and HN being littered with stories about people who are--for some random reason--unconnectable due to no fault of their own. That's the natural response if you let the "throw everyone in jail for the most minor infraction" crowd into the building.

Re:The most insane "robocall mitigation plans" that telcos f... by flyinghamster on Wednesday October 18, 2023 @12:56PM (#37931423)
Oh, so very much this. I pretty much won't answer phone calls from unfamiliar numbers, just because of the spam. I can't help but wonder how many important phone calls have been missed because of the spam tide.