# Why Can't Cell Phones Block Incoming Calls? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 8, 2007, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-cell-phones-block-incoming-calls/395180 "2007-03-08T23:15:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2007, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-cell-phones-block-incoming-calls/395180/1 "2007-03-08T23:15:50Z")
Say you have caller ID. Why can’t the phone be programmed to recognize certain numbers and refuse them? Is the technology prohibitively expensive? Some other reason? ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2007, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-cell-phones-block-incoming-calls/395180/2 "2007-03-08T23:29:04Z")
Depends on the phone. Symbian based phones (many Nokia models) are able to with applications such as [Blacklist](http://www.symbiangear.com/product.html?pid=20779,20786,119990) I love my Nokia E62 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2007, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-cell-phones-block-incoming-calls/395180/3 "2007-03-08T23:35:46Z")
[QUOTE=GargoyleWB] Depends on the phone. Symbian based phones (many Nokia models) are able to with applications such as [Blacklist](http://www.symbiangear.com/product.html?pid=20779,20786,119990) I love my Nokia E62 🙂 [/QUOTE] Cool! I have a very basic Nokia. 6200? 6100? Any hope there? What would be the cheapest phone that Blacklist would work on? Thanks for the answer. ETA : Rather than cheapest, what sort of phone am I looking for? What level of sophistication, so to speak? Speak to me as if I were a child, who has a poor grasp of modern technology. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2007, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-cell-phones-block-incoming-calls/395180/4 "2007-03-08T23:52:57Z")
Looking up your phone, I didn’t find a specific application for it, but it appears that since you can customize caller groups, you could make a specific “Enemies of Contrapuntal” caller group to add blacklisted numbers to, and then set incoming calls to that group to “silent ring” or “straight to voicemail” or something. Might be a good workaround. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2007, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-cell-phones-block-incoming-calls/395180/5 "2007-03-08T23:56:02Z")
[QUOTE=GargoyleWB] Looking up your phone, I didn’t find a specific application for it, but it appears that since you can customize caller groups, you could make a specific “Enemies of Contrapuntal” caller group to add blacklisted numbers to, and then set incoming calls to that group to “silent ring” or “straight to voicemail” or something. Might be a good workaround. [/QUOTE] Thanks again, for your response, and the time spent in research. I love this place! Although “Enemies of Contrapuntal” would be a, shall we say, not very exclusive club. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-cell-phones-block-incoming-calls/395180/6 "2007-03-09T00:05:20Z")
If you like Nokia, look for the mid-range models that support “S60” applications. These will run many programs such as Blacklist. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-cell-phones-block-incoming-calls/395180/7 "2007-03-09T00:11:52Z")
[QUOTE=GargoyleWB] If you like Nokia, look for the mid-range models that support “S60” applications. These will run many programs such as Blacklist. [/QUOTE] Grazie.