New Service from Sprint

I got an ad in the mail for a new telephone feature from Sprint (my local telephone company) called "Privacy ID". Read about it if you want at www.sprint.com/local, but here's the deal in a nutshell.

If you have caller ID, you know that if there is no ANI information on the wire when you get a call, your caller ID box won't display a number (mine displays "out of area") and even if you have anonymous call rejection service on your line, the call will still go through. With this "Privacy ID" service, calls with no ANI data will be answerd by a recording before your phone even rings. The caller is given a chance to enter a four digit code to allow their call to ring through to your phone. If they do not know the code they are asked to record their name or their company's name. After they record a name your phone rings and a recording tells you the name or company the person calling recorded.

Then you have four options. First is to take the call, second to send the call to voicemail, third to reject the call and play a rejection recording to the caller, fourth is to play an anti-telemarketing message to the caller asking them to remove your name and number from their calling list.

Is this cool or what? It's $4.95 a month, but that sounds like money well spent to me. I signed up online, and got an email saying the service will be active for me on the 9th.