Help with Privacy Features

[Mark_Blackpool]

Hi,

Hope someone can help:

What I want to have, on both my mobile and landline, is a really very basic feature which seems not to be rocket science but also appears to be quite hard to get:

I had a Sony Ericsson T-610 mobile (now failing) and bought a Vodafone 710 to replace it. Although the new phone is funky it's useless really because it lacks this feature:

The T-610 allows you to build up a list of numbers and then to set the phone in such a way that only those numbers can call. Everyone else, including Withheld and Anonymous callers, just get cut off since voice mail is disabled.

The new 710 appears to have the same operating system and is years newer. It supports lists and groups but does not have this privacy feature, anyone can call.

Clearly I can decline calls I don't want to take but I'd rather those callers simply did not connect and I never got to find out about it - sales calls, wrong numbers, etc.

I can look around for another new mobile which *does* have that feature although I wonder if this is familiar to anyone who knows of current models which do this. (Call Options > Accept Calls > Only From List kind of thing)

Moving to the landline: to have this, I'd need Caller ID enabled which I can sort. I'm then unsure about how to implement this:

BT do have a "call barring" feature so you can bar selected numbers. You can also have "Anonymous call reject". This works the other way around to what I want and "Unknown" numbers can still connect.

I'll need to buy a new handset which has caller display and a phone memory and I wonder if like with the mobile, I can control these features with the handset so that again only numbers in the phone book can connect so as not to pay monthly charges for the privilege (e.g. a network feature, which BT don't seem to offer anyway)

However I can't see, from looking online and in brochures, which handsets do this, and since today's retailers are pretty clueless about what they're selling I don't have confidence that they can advise. Asking about this usually illicits a weird expression as if I'm asking for something really bizarre and nobody can answer.

Can anyone here help?

Thanks,
Mark

[freakyleaky]

Bump.

[Mark_Blackpool]

I've reverted back to the old Sony Ericsson T610 now.

The menu option it has, which is missing on the newer one, is "Calls > Manage Calls > Accept Calls > and then: From List, From Everyone, From No-one". Very handy.

Does anyone know if this is a specific version of the operating system and I just need to check what OS is on any handset I can buy?

[Mark_Blackpool]

Right then:

I haven't looked for a new, new mobile yet But, I have managed to get somewhere with the landline.

I rang Philips consumer helpline, who deserve a mention for being absolutely fantastic. Some of their models have a feature called 'do not disturb' and what that basically does,if I understand correctly, is still continues to have the handset ring when the incoming caller ID is known: but when it is not known, it stays silent which is much less intrusive and easy to ignore.

I have not yet managed to come across either a landline handset or device for the UK market (though there is one for the US) which does exactly what we were looking for - give a dead tone to everyone whose caller Id is not known. But this sounds like a good compromise.