If you use the internet long enough, you start to wish the rest of the world had been designed as well. Take email block lists for example.
Thanks to the architecture of the internet, it is relatively simple to block abusive senders of email based upon the originating IP address. Lists of abusive IP addresses are indexed and distributed via the DNS protocol by providers like Barracuda and Spamhaus. I have personally used DNSRBL services for years and was very pleased and impressed with how it all functioned.
Travel back to the future a few years and it wasn’t even possible to know who was calling you before you picked up your land-line. You never knew if it was your dear relative, a political spear campaign, a prank caller, a relentless and desperate salesperson, or a stalker. Innovation comes to the rescue with answering machines for screening our calls, and finally caller-ID! That works fairly well, but if someone’s calls are harassment, it doesn’t do much good and one would presumably have to call the phone company (such a pleasant experience for any reason) and get a new number.
Same thing happens with mobile phones, too. What can you do if someone you don’t want to talk to keeps calling you? Thankfully Verizon Wireless offers the ability to block up to 20 numbers, as well as 866 numbers and private or unlisted numbers. I feel its pretty lame that they charge $4.95 / month for this, but whatever, I pay it anyway.
But what about text messages? I presume that if a phone number is blocked, the block prevents incoming calls as well as text messages.
And international numbers? Apparently they are not supported. One may presume that the cost of making international phone calls would deter potential antagonists, but those determined enough without ample resources can always look to VOIP services for low-priced calls - though I’m not sure if VOIP helps with international text messages though.
