meaning - 方 - also read ほう when referring to a person?

The following sentence is from "A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar":

留守番電話は、一方ではかかる方にもかける方にも便利な面もあるが、他方ではお互いに直接話が出来ないから、不自然な面もある

"The answering machine is, on the one hand, very convienent for both a person who calls and a person who is called, but, on the other hand, unnatural because you can't talk directly with the other person"

Despite not being particularly familiar with the usage of かける/かかる in terms of giving/receive phone-calls, the confusing part of this, for me, is the furigana given for 方 in "かかる方" is "ほう". Perhaps I am not understanding the sentence well enough generally speaking, but shouldn't this read "かた"? As in "person who receives a phonecall"? Is it read ほう because it means something more akin to "the side which receives a call", is there really a difference between these two?

Answer

Sometimes it can be confusing as whether 方 should be read as かた or ほう. It is actually preferred to use Hiragana for ほう often to distinguish between the two. However, keep in mind かた is used in polite speech when referring to someone in respect. In your example, reading it as かた would be awkward because of this.