To a great extent, the measure is modeled on existing laws that were written to prohibit obscene telephone calls and other forms of telephone harassment.

I started with the telephone harassment in the dead of night and proceeded to the moment when I'd taken the receiver from Ann and asked for the police.

We filed two police reports against them (along with a third for telephone harassment).

Telefonsjikanedommen refers to a 1952 case where the Supreme Court ruled that telephone harassment ("telefonsjikane") was not illegal under the current criminal code.

Prank calls that waste the time of emergency services are a criminal offense in most countries and are considered telephone harassment in the US.

Mr. Valentin has been charged with telephone harassment, falsely reporting an incident involving death and making a false statement.

Terry Ferguson, a Bell Atlantic spokeswoman, said the typical subscriber is a "young urban" who likes new technology and has had problems with telephone harassment.

While there are already laws that can be used against this sort of deceptive telephone harassment, a more specific bill aimed directly at these calls is needed.

Mr. Prince noted that Mr. Killen was convicted of telephone harassment, a felony, in the 70's.

Verizon was later able to stop most of these calls, but whoever had made them had violated state laws against telephone harassment.