Bell of Pennsylvania may have dialed a wrong number when it filed for the right to offer its new Caller ID service in Pennsylvania, several organizations maintain.

The telephone company sees its new Caller ID service -- which would display callers' numbers on a box in the phone customer's home and record those numbers for later use -- as a convenient protection for customers harassed by anonymous callers and a simple way of keeping track of calls.

However, several groups -- including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Pennsylvania Coalition against Domestic Violence, and the state Consumer Advocacy Office -- view the service as a potential threat to individual rights and the safety of women.

The organizations' objections have convinced the state Public Utilities Commission to delay action on service approval for 90 days pending a public hearing. PUC information writer George Kabusk said a PUC administrative law must decide on the hearing testimony within 90 days then submit the findings to the full commission.

Bell of Pennsylvania spokeswoman Rita Krantz described the Bell reaction as "disappointed," adding that the services had been scheduled to take effect April 2.

"All of our promotional and educational material is already prepared -- including Caller ID. That should tell you something," Krantz said. Bell had planned to offer Caller ID as one of seven ID services including call trace and call block, she said.

Judy Yupcavage, state Coalition Against Domestic Violence public education specialist, said the service could easily be used by batterers to trace their spouses to shelters and safe houses.

"Many (victims) leave without their children and have to call the batterer about children; many have to call to make arrangements about personal belongings," she said. "There are many reasons they have to contact their batterers."

The existence of the service also may discourage battering victims from calling domestic violence hotlines and may endanger volunteers if the batterer traces their calls, Yupcavage said.

Pennsylvania ACLU Executive Director Barry Steinhardt said, "Caller ID is the bull in the privacy china shop." The service would reveal unlisted phone numbers without the knowledge or consent of callers, he said.

State consumer advocate David Barasch said the service would more likely be used by businesses to create phone lists and other information banks.

Barasch suggested several ways of eliminating that problem, including blocking the trace for those customers concerned about privacy or emanating a warning signal so that callers might know their calls are being traced.

"Such a service would instantaneously solve the prank phone call problem and protect the person with a legitimate interest in privacy for whatever reason," Barasch said.

Krantz said Bell recognizes the privacy issues raised by the three groups but said the issue works two ways.

"The caller's taking the initial step; the called person's at the mercy of who's calling," she said. "It gives you as a customer a little bit more control over your own telephone service. There are valid points on the other side also, but we feel that the person who subscribes to telephone service should have some control over who calls."

Krantz said the system also can be used to store telephone numbers to call back more easily and has other uses not related to the privacy issue.

Steinhardt said other ID services -- such as call block, which prevents certain calls from coming through, or call trace, which lets the phone company trace the call but keeps the number confidential -- could be more effective against harassing calls.

The service -- which has been tested in Harrisburg -- was recently approved in New Jersey over the objections of that state's ACLU.

George Dawson, New Jersey Board of Public Utilities spokesman, said Caller ID has not seen the type of abuses predicted by the New Jersey ACLU during testing in two areas of the state.

Dawson said New Jersey's ACLU had also been concerned about violations of contracts for unlisted numbers and possibilities that those numbers would be revealed. He said unlisted number clients give up some privacy with every transaction for which they must give a telephone number.

The state's utility board began tests in November 1987 and gave approval for full expansion a year later, Dawson said. The service should be offered in 90 percent of New Jersey by December 1990, he said.

"We felt the technology should be introduced in the state as a hopefully better way to allow people to control the abuse of telephones," Dawson said. "It's still pretty new, but we have not seen any abuses."

Use of the service has not been extensive, Dawson said. The 1,537 customers who already use Caller ID include only six-tenths of 1 percent of residential customers and two-tenths of 1 percent of business users.

"We said we would be prepared to reconsider if there was overwhelming opposition," Dawson said, noting that New Jersey officials have received about 50 letters since statewide service was authorized. Complaints to New Jersey Bell will be detailed this summer when the company files its six-month report, he said.

Kabusk said if the program is approved, it will be offered next in the 215 area code covering the Philadelphia area, then extended throughout the state as equipment is updated. Local Bell manager James Walck said the service would be available in State College sometime in 1991 if approved.

Bell spokesman Miles Kotay said all seven services have been delayed until the decision on Caller ID is approved.

Yupcavage said the service should not be approved unless Bell agrees to block the tracing technology without charge to customers.

"Our major concern is that you don't retreat from safety simply to advance technology," she said.