This is topic Telephone Access & Restrictions in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Charles Lubner (Member # 157) on 05-25-2002, 12:35 AM:
Does anyone know of a telephone that lets you block certain numbers or area codes? I know PBX phone systems can do this, but I'm looking for a standard off-the-shelf telephone. I would prefer 2 lines, but a 1 line would work. Basically I don't want my staff calling their relatives long distance at work, or calling an international or 900 number. Right now we have just a ringer phone that at the box office that can't dial out at all, but I want to be able to call the police, 911, and our corporate office in case of an emergency. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 05-25-2002, 01:38 AM:
Talk to your phone company about applying the restrictions to your phone service itself. They may be able to provide you a code so you can dial long-distance and no-one else (unless they have the code).------------------
"Running through life at 24 frames per second"
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 05-25-2002, 08:57 AM:
It should be pretty easy to get the phone company to restrict calls to 1-900 and 976 numbers. It is also possible to get a line installed which does not allow long-distance calls. These are much better solutions than the ring-only phone or a phone which, say, only allows 7 digits to be dialed, since there are easy ways to get around both of these (e.g. pocket tone dialer from Radio Shack or tapping the switchhook to simulate a rotary phone).Personally, I'd suggest just setting a policy about telephone use (e.g. "no long distance personal calls"), expecting your employees to follow it, and canning those who don't. There _are_ legitimate reasons for theatre employees to call long-distance (e.g. distributors, poster companies, etc.), after all....
Posted by Ken Layton (Member # 133) on 05-25-2002, 01:31 PM:
Why not buy a desktop payphone? It allows you to block certain numbers and it doesn't cost much. Plus you'd actually make money. 
Visit www.payphone.com for more info.
Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 05-26-2002, 02:53 PM:
Radio Shack has a box that the phone line plugs thru that will block any number starting with 1. We put one on the desk phone & ended the long distance calls. You can also remove the long distance carrier from the line. That doesn't stop the 1010 dial arounds though.
Posted by Charles Lubner (Member # 157) on 05-26-2002, 05:46 PM:
The box that eliminates calls starting with 1 sounds interesting. I don't need to block the entire line, just this particular phone. The phone is in the box office and is answered by the cashier. Managers also use this line in the office to make business calls which may be long distance. We have tried to set policies in the past but quite honestly it doesn't work. Thanks for all the suggestions so far.
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 05-26-2002, 10:26 PM:
Will the Radio Shack box prevent someone from tapping the switchhook once (as a rotary phone would do)? Another way to get around it would be to call a number which gives a recorded message and hangs up on the caller (maybe a theatre!); eventually this would lead to another dial tone which one could then use to dial long-distance numbers. Some customer-owned payphones (the kind which use a "regular" phone line, not a "payphone" line) used to have this bug and could be used to make unlimited free calls. These seem to have been mostly fixed now, though.
Posted by Don Anderson (Member # 397) on 05-27-2002, 01:42 AM:
We had placed one of those tabletop payphones in our vending area. We have dial out phones in each booth that are off limits to anyone other than the on duty manager. Plus, a regular phoneline in our locked managers office. We always have had problems with our concession personel using the phone to call their friends, most of the calls being cell numbers. Since placing a payphone in the vending area our abused calls have dropped to zero. The staff uses the phone which only costs a quarter compared to the Sprint payphone that costs 50 cents. They complained about it at first. Thought they would outwise me by having their friends call them. But, we don't let them get calls during their shifts. The vending area payphone gives 'em three minutes of talktime before disconnecting on them, and allows 911 calls. Its the best thing that I have bought for the place....got it cheap...and paid it off in 2 months.