I Own My Phone

Currently, phone owners are at the mercy of anyone else who has a phone; anyone at all can make anyone else's phone ring, almost anywhere in the world. We need to skew the economics of the system so as to make unwanted calls unprofitable: let me set my phone up so that some people are allowed to reach me for free, but others must pay me a fee for the privilege of interrupting my day.

Solution: the phone service provider offers an opt-in service called "I Own My Phone". When I as a phone owner opt in to this service, I can set up a "white list" of numbers that are allowed to call me any time at no charge. Anyone else - anyone calling from a number not on the white list - is greeted by a message telling them that the call can only be completed if the caller agrees to pay a ten-cent fee. It's key that this happens before my phone even rings - my day can only be interrupted either by people on my white list or people willing to pay for the privilege. Some of the ten-cent fee goes to the phone company, but most is credited to my bill.

Ten cents is a small number. It won't stop a one-time, real-human caller who wants to get through to me. But added up over the thousands of calls a mass calling operation performs, it would become a major financial obstacle.

Let the free market do the work of stopping scammers and robocallers. This system still allows anyone at all to call me, but it recognizes that my time, like yours, like everyone's, is valuable. Anyone who wants to reach me by phone and take up some of that time - whether to pitch me a product or service or to ask my opinion of a political candidate or to try to swindle me out of my hard-earned money - is welcome to do so... for the nominal cost of only ten cents a call.

After all... I own my phone.