Last time I checked it wasn't available in Woking and I was told it was unlikely to ever be. I've mentioned it in my complaints before but have been fobbed off
Do I care about excuses of costs?
No.
As a consumer who's paid a fair amount of money for digital phones with caller ID and with no indication they would not work with NTL (even NTL's "services available in your area" leaflet at the time I bought them seemed to indicate it was available), what I want is caller ID, not excuses.
I'm sorry, but arguments about cost don't hold water. In a big telecom company like this there are always going to be certain services that cost more than they'll make money back on. They make the money in other areas instead, and besides, Caller ID isn't being offered free. They are charging for it.
As for "lack of demand", NTL must not be logging the calls they get from customers requesting Caller ID.
By the way, Caller ID uses goes way beyond just screening double glazing salesmen (which can be sorted out with
TPS).
Quite often I could use it to screen friends/family. Sometimes someone's calling and you're eating a meal or watching a film and if it's immediate family you might want to take the call, but others could be left to voicemail/answer-phone as you know it's just going to be idle gossip. Okay, you could leave everyone to that, but people are put off by an answer phone and won't leave a message.
A bigger use though is for logging calls. My phones will store a range of numbers from caller ID during the day. 1471 will only tell you the last number. Caller ID would be very handy in this case to check if someone's been trying to contact you (and obviously is put off by the answer phone).
It could also be handy for keeping an eye on burglars who are calling at specific times to check if you're in (if you're a bit paranoid). A phone that logs Caller ID numbers will often log the times.