Other than the NHS conspiracy theory and the desire to hand even more power over to facebook, I completely understand where the author's coming from. Especially

Other than the NHS conspiracy theory and the desire to hand even more power over to facebook, I completely understand where the author's coming from. Especially not knowing who'll be on the other end (caller ID only identifies the number, not the person); and trying to anticipate and gather all necessary details to hand before embarking, due to being tethered to the wall/desk. I've spent a while thinking about this over the years. I think a much better form of interaction is the landline answering machine: the caller will be heard for a few seconds ("Hi it's Bob, are you there?"), the recipient can decide whether to answer, and if not then the caller doesn't know if they were available or not. Contrast that with current BS like "it disconnected after one ring, so I know you hit cancel". A similar mode of interaction is that of the walkie talkie, although that doesn't give the option of leaving a message.