can I block a number

No. That is not a feature of the iPhone.

Only your Carrier can block numbers...

Unless you want to have your carrier do this for you, and I believe that there is a charge for it you can't block numbers on your phone.

But if you have a caller who you don't want to hear from you can download a "Silent" ringtone (Just search on google for silent iPhone ringtone and you will find plenty of them), create a contact entry for the number you want to ignore, assign the silent ringtone to the entry and your phone won't ring when they call. You may need to turn off vibrate when called in settings if you want to completly ignor this caller. But I rely on the vibration when I have my phone in my pocket. But I can look at the caller ID see that it is the one I want to ignore and then I can just ignore them and put my phone back in my pocket.

Ana, not necessarily, I have a wireless phone made by Panasonic that allows you to store numbers in memory that the phone then blocks. The limit is only 30 numbers, but if one of those numbers calls, there is one ring and the message Caller Blocked.

the user can remove blocks or add blocks up to the 30 number limit of the phone.

Be that as it may Ralph... my post was in reference to the OP having an iPhone...

But Lawrence's succinct post is a more apt reply...

The phone you have is not "blocking" the calls. It is just 'not ringing'. The calls still process through the system and MUST reach the phone in order to be 'blocked'. The best that can happen is the phone doesn't ring and the call goes to voice mail.

No, Tim, the phone does ring, once, and the calls are blocked. They do not go to voice mail. The Panasonic model I bought is programmed to reject calls that come from stored numbers. In fact, you can buy equipment to install on your phone line, at least in the US, that intercepts calls, looks at the number, and will either disconnect or pass the call. The signal that is sent when the call is rejected does not permit the call to pass to the voice mail system of even the carrier.

That system does use aspects of the caller ID system but with the addition that it can be programmed to reject callls that come up with the designator Unavailable, Out of Area, Private Caller, and so on. Mine is set to reject all calls for which a number is not provided, in addition to all of the specific numbers I have placed in memory.

It does a good job of rejecting telemarketers.

Ana, I agree, the iPhone does not have the call blocking feature...was just pointing out call blocking is not limited to the carrier. Hardware is available that permits the subscriber to do the blocking, also. Just not with an iPone.

I realize it's picking nits, but if the phone rings once it is not blocking the call, it is rejecting the call once recieved. I had one of those for a long time back when I had a land-line. A wonderful Nortel system that I could program with a blacklist of numbers I did not want to answer. It would not take a message from them either. However, that requires the voice mail system to be local. If the voice mail system is provided by the service provider, they will roll to voice mail. The only way to avoid that is to have the phone answer, play a recording (or not) and hang up. (My phone would do that as well. I rejected all private callers that way and they got a message that they could not leave a message, call back by dialing *82 and then the number, etc).

BUT... in order to do this, the call needs to reach the phone, meaning it is not truly "blocked".

The average person isn't likely to understand the difference, but... there it is.

Some carriers, including AT&T, offer call blocking for a fee.

Ralph Landry1 wrote:

No, Tim, the phone does ring, once, and the calls are blocked. They do not go to voice mail. The Panasonic model I bought is programmed to reject calls that come from stored numbers. In fact, you can buy equipment to install on your phone line, at least in the US, that intercepts calls, looks at the number, and will either disconnect or pass the call. The signal that is sent when the call is rejected does not permit the call to pass to the voice mail system of even the carrier.

That system does use aspects of the caller ID system but with the addition that it can be programmed to reject callls that come up with the designator Unavailable, Out of Area, Private Caller, and so on. Mine is set to reject all calls for which a number is not provided, in addition to all of the specific numbers I have placed in memory.

It does a good job of rejecting telemarketers.

There is a bit of a terminology problem in this thread. Call block is something done by a telephone system operator at their service switches that stops the call from ever going forward to your line. What your phones are doing is more usually called "call rejecting" since the call actually does get processed through to your line and rings on your phone. Then some simple software in the phone itself captures the caller id, compares it to a stored lookup list and either rejects it or continues to ring.

True call blocking is indeed something that can only be done by the service provider at their equipment end - but could be something they easily offered via your online account web page (using black listed numbers, just like email services offer their user to block spam addresses). That would require them to spend some money and setup a system, which they won't do.

There is an alternative solution :

it 's to use a silent ringtone to ignore calls... the solution is explained on this iphone site.

(In the interest of full disclosure, I have no connection or interest in any company or product that may or may not be mentioned in this thread.)

The silent works. Sort of. The call will still interrupt you, the phone will still vibrate if you have it set that way and if you're using bluetooth headsets (like many states require), it'll still ring in your ear.

The better solution was one offered in the App store soon after the iPhone was released. However, Apple chose to remove it and won't allow any app like that in their store. I'd mentioned this in an earlier post, but Apple admins deleted the post because I mentioned (didn't promote or recommend it, just mentioned it) something that is against their policy.

It isn't that the iPhone isn't capable of blocking numbers. The previously available app proved that it is. You could set up blacklists of numbers to be blocked, whitelists of numbers to be allowed in and given choices of what to do. Like "answer", "Send directly to voicemail", "ignore", "pick up and hang up", etc. It works VERY well.

It is Apple's decision to NOT allow iPhone users to do this, just as it was Apple's decision to remove Siri from the iPhone 3GS and 4 so we'd all hopefully run out and buy the iPhone 4S.

I really prefer and like my iPhone 4 and I'm on my 8th Mac. I don't always like the decisions that Apple makes for me though.

You have several choices:

1. Live with the lack of this feature

2. Use a silent ringtone which doesn't solve much

3. --------------- (Sorry, can't say it or the message will get deleted)

4. Switch to Android and run Mr. Number, which does exactly what many thousands of iPhone users have been asking for. (Google block numbers iphone and you'll get 25,700,000 hits)

<Edited by Host>

3. --------------- (Sorry, can't say it or the message will get deleted)

Don't be surprised if it gets deleted for implying it.

None of these (including the Android solution) actually block the number. They fool you into thinking it was blocked, but the caller can still leave a voicemail and will know that you didn't answer. The only way to actually block calls is to have your carrier block them. Most carriers can do this, but charge a monthly fee for the service.