Nélio José Nicolai (c. 1940 – 11 October 2017) was a Brazilian electrotechnician who is believed to have invented

caller ID Caller identification (Caller ID) is a telephone service, available in analog and digital telephone systems, including voice over IP (VoIP), that transmits a caller's telephone number to the called party's telephone equipment when the call is ...

. Nicolai was born in

Belo Horizonte Belo Horizonte is the List of largest cities in Brazil, sixth-largest city in Brazil, with a population of around 2.3 million, and the third largest metropolitan area, containing a population of 6 million. It is the List of cities in Sout ...

and studied at the Escola Técnica de Minas Gerais (current Federal Center for Technological Education of Minas Gerais). Nicolai moved to

Brasília Brasília ( ; ) is the capital city, capital of Brazil and Federal District (Brazil), Federal District. Located in the Brazilian highlands in the country's Central-West Region, Brazil, Central-West region, it was founded by President Juscelino ...

in the 1970 decade, working for Telebrasília. There, in 1977 he developed a system for identifying phone calls as a way to curb prank callers. The system was called Bina (acronym for "B Identifica Número A"; ''B identifies number A)'' Nicolai filed a patent for the first version of Bina in 1980, recognised eight years later. After losing his job in 1984, the inventor developed a second version of Bina, patented in 1992. Nicolai fought with telecommunications companies for the right to receive royalties for an adaptation of the caller ID used by telephone exchanges and filed lawsuits against phone operators Claro and Vivo. In 2012 Claro settled with Nicolai to pay 0,25 percent of his request.

References

Brazilian inventors People from Belo Horizonte Date of birth missing Place of death missing 1940s births 2017 deaths {{telecom-stub