How to block any phone number on your iPhone for free!

Use this method and … say bye bye to unwanted calls and telemarketers

The following is a way for ATT cellphone subscribers with LOCKED iPhones to block specific telephone numbers. My battle against a particular nasty Telemarketing Company continues with some of their system calling me every couple of days. You too may have a number you’d like to block; a disgruntled ex, a bailiff or debt collector, your parole officer, or any other such “person non grata”.

The bad news is that there is currently no way to block a particular phone number from calling your iPhone for FREE. Att appears to offer a paid service called “Smart Limits” that allows a user to block numbers but it’s $5 per month and why should we have to pay for this. The method I’m going to describe here is called the silent ringtone trick. Here it is in three easy steps:

1. First download the silent ringtone app file - Go to iTunes and search for “Silent Ringtone” app ($.99) – IMPORTANT — <<< DO NOT SIMPLY DOWNLOAD THE APP – FIRST YOU NEED TO DOWNLOAD IT TO YOUR COMPUTER.  Once downloaded you’ll need to drag it into your iTunes ringtones folder and then sync it to your iPhone.
2. Next add the number that you wish to block to your Address book, give it a nice name like “Telemarketer Scum”, “Miffed Ex” or “Jonny Law”. If you’ve got a lot of numbers to block create one universal blocked call contact called Blocked and you can then add other numbers to it in future by the “Add to existing Contact” feature.
3. Finally assign this secret Silent Ringtone to the just added Telemarketer or Miffed Ex. Voila! you’ll never be disturbed by them again.

This method is not really a true way to block calls at the telephone exchange but really a workaround as you’ll still see their number in the Phone > Recents > Missed list BUT the phone will never again ring when they try to call and harass you, out of sound out of sight perhaps??!! I believe other phones such as the Treo have software to do this – so let’s hope that Apple  iPhone will add this as a user software feature in the future!

Update: Feb 2010 – new At&t add on feature may allow number blocking for $5 pm

I was looking at my account online and was browsing under the Manage Tab > My Services > My Features and noticed an add on option called “Smart Limits for Wireless Parental Controls“  for the pricey sum of $5 per month.

It mentions that this option can “Block/allow specific numbers that can be called or text messaged (incoming and outgoing)”  so perhaps this is what some of us have been looking for? This plan is mainly designed to lock down a phone a child’s phone for safety reasons but If anyone has tried it let me know.

Tags: block calls on iphone, silent rington