Michael Fereday has been busy creating a Blacklist of telephone callers
Described as the "Clever family phone", the Gigaset C620A Duo is a two-handset DECT phone system that offers to deal with a bane of modern-day living. Whether you refer to them as ’Cold Calls' or 'Expletive-deleted Nuisance Calls', these unwanted intrusions can be annoying and sometimes expensive. The Gigaset solution to this problem involves levels of protection and a Blacklist - but more on this aspect a little later.
The two handsets, while identical in appearance, come pre-defined as Handset 1 and Handset 2. Also included in the package are power leads, two base stations and accompanying rechargeable sets of batteries. Each handset features a 4 x 3cm colour screen with control and navigation options plus a 4 x 3 alphanumeric keypad.
Handset 1 sits on the main base station which incorporates the answer-phone module with appropriate controls and a small screen showing the number of messages being stored. This base station has connections for mains power and the telephone line. The much smaller second base station, for Handset 2, features just mains power connection.
Following an eight-hour charging session, you can set about applying language, date and time settings. The default answer-phone message can be changed if it does not suit, and you can add entries to the Phonebook facility - which can hold up to 250 items. Each entry can consist of three numbers (home, office, mobile) along with a first and last name which can be used to sort the entries. It will be up to you to ensure that phonebook entries are kept in synch between handsets as this task is not carried out automatically as I would have expected.
While incoming calls from those in the phonebook or anybody who has not blocked CLI (Calling Line Identification) will be automatically accepted, other calls will be regarded as anonymous. Three levels of protection are available for dealing with anonymous calls. The lowest level handles calls as it does identified numbers with the screen display indicating that no information was provided. The second level of protection will block the ring tone while displaying call details on the display. With the highest level of protection, the call is blocked with the caller hearing a busy tone. I would have preferred an unobtainable tone rather than the busy signal to further discourage repeat calls.
Whether calls are blocked or not, they will appear on the incoming call list. You can access this list at any time. These calls will be identified by date, time and other information. You can then select individual numbers for transfer to a Blacklist, which has the same levels of protection as anonymous calls.
As well as blocking calls, the C620A DUO allows you to apply restrictions to a specified time period. You can either opt for a lower ring tone volume or have silent calls displayed on the screen. A VIP list of 15 callers can be created. Those on this list will automatically by-pass the time period restrictions and will be allowed through. You can also use this phone as a baby monitor that alerts you via a call to a designated number if noise is detected above acertain level.
While activated, incoming calls will be silent with just a screen display notification. If you accept an incoming call then the baby monitor feature will be turned off during the call. Michael Fereday
The more you use this kit, the better it becomes.