British Telecommunications Plc has announced a new trial of a service based on Calling Line Identification. The company says the trial is to test the technology, rather than triallists’ acceptance of the service, since the technology gained wide acceptance among Elgin, Scotland, customers in the earlier test, with 90% wanting its introduction. The new service will enable users to dial in a code number, and get the details of the last person to call, and whether the call was answered. The previous caller can then be dialled automatically, or the number stored for future use. The trial of that service, dubbed Call Return, is to involve around 40,000 subscribers in Perth, and will last six months. The basic Caller Line Identification service, to be introduced nationally next year, will initially be available to 95% of British Telecom customers and will be free, although users will have to buy special telephone sets. Call Return will be an extra charge option, but will not require a special handset, and will have charges of around UKP4 to UKP7 per month. All BT’s Caller Line Identification-based offerings will initially work only across the BT network. However, BT says that extending the service across other networks is a future possibility.
