www.snopes.com/politics/business/cell411.asp
Business --> Celling Your Soul Celling Your Soul Claim: A directory of cell phone numbers will soon be published. Status: Multiple: * A consortium of wireless providers is planning to create a 411 (direc tory assistance) service for cell phone numbers: True.
A directory of cell phone numbers will soon be published for all consumer s to have access to. This will open the doors for solicitors to call you on your cell phones, using up the precious minutes that we pay lots of money for. The Federal Trade Commission has set up a "do not call" list. To be included on the "do not call" list, you must call from the number you wish to register.
Starting Jan 1, 2005, all cell phone numbers will be made public to telem arketing firms. So this means as of Jan 1, your cell phone may start rin ging off the hook with telemarketers, but unlike your home phone, most p lans pay for your incoming calls. These telemarketers will eat up your f ree minutes and end up costing money. According to the National Do Not C all List, you have until Dec 15, 2004 to get on the national "Do Not Cal l List" for cell phones. Registering only takes a minute, is in effect for 5 years. Origins: As the use of cellular telephone technology has grown tremendo usly in the last several years, many consumers have given up maintaining traditional land-line phone service entirely. They Cell phone prefer th e convenient portability of cell phones, as well as the privacy: So far, cell phone numbers have generally been excluded from printed phone dire ctories and directory assistance services, and protections have been put in place to restrict telemarketing calls to cell phones. Soon, however, some of the privacy that cell phones provide may be eroded .
Their goal is to pool their list ings to create a comprehensive directory of cell phone customer names an d phone numbers that would be made available to directory assistance pro viders.
Many cell phone customers are opposed to the proposed Wireless 411 servic e for a number of reasons: * They prefer the privacy of knowing that their cell phone numbers are available only to those to whom they provide them. They don't want other people being able to obtain their cell phone numbers without their consent or knowledge. The wireless companies behind the proposed Wireless 411 service contend t hat their service will be beneficial to cellular customers and that they have addressed those customers' major concerns: * The service would save money for the estimated five million customers who use only cellular phones and currently pay to have their cell phone numbers listed in phone directories. The phone numbers of wireless customers who do nothing will not be included, those who choose to be listed can have their numbers removed from the directory if they change their minds, and there is no charge for requesting to be included or choosing not to be included. It will be made available only to operator service centers performing the 411 directory assistance service. All of these points have been summed up in numerous media articles, such as the following from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: There is a grain of truth in the message making it believable, but it's w rong on two counts: Not all cell phone numbers will be listed in the nat ional directory planned for 2006. And telemarketers will not have access to the directory. It is illegal for marketers using auto-dialers and most do to call wireless phone numbers. Here's the truth: A national directory will be compiled, but numbers will be included on an opt-in basis. If a cell phone subscriber does nothing, the number will not be listed. When the directory is ready, it will be available only as part of the existing 411 directory service, accessed by calling in and asking for a specific number. Cell phone subscribers can list their numbers on the do-not-call registry if they choose, but there is no deadline to get on the list, as the e-m ail messages now circulating suggest Nonetheless, many consumers don't trust the Wireless 411 consortium to up hold their promises, and although Qsent and its clients plan to make the Wireless 411 service available sometime in 2006, its implementation is far from certain as the wireless companies are still contesting proposed legislation which seeks to regulate wireless phone directories. So, although the gist of the message quoted at the head of this page is c orrect in alerting consumers to a proposed directory of cell phone numbe rs, it is misleading in stating that such a directory will "soon be publ ished" (the word "published" implies making a printed directory availabl e, which the wireless consortium maintains they will not do) and in dire cting readers to sign up with the The National Do Not Call Registry. The latter step will not keep wireless customer listings out of the propose d Wireless 411 database it will only add their phone numbers to a list of numbers off-limits to most telemarketers, a step which is premature (because the Wireless 411 directory has not yet been implemented) and la rgely unnecessary (because the Wireless 411 directory information is not supposed to be supplied to telemarketers, and because FCC regulations a lready in place block the bulk of telemarketing calls to cell phones). Some versions of the exhortation to cell phone users to add their names t o the Do Not Call Registry erroneously state there is a 15 December 2004 deadline for getting listed. Says Lois Greisman, the Federal Trade Comm ission official who oversees the anti-telemarketing registry: "There is no deadline; However, belief that there might be such a cut-off coupled with the e-mai led alerts themselves have served to multiply many times over the number of registrations. Since the initial wave of sign-ups following the 2003 launch of the list, registrations have come in at the rate of 200,000 n ew numbers a week. Yet in the final week of November 2004, nearly 1 mill ion new subscribers were added, and in the first week of December 2004, that figure jumped to 2 million. At this point in time, 69 million phone numbers are contained in the registry. Adding one's cell phone number to the National Do Not Call Registry (even if currently unnecessary) won't have any adverse effect, but customers should be aware of exactly what that action will and will not accomplish . have always been oppo sed to the proposed cell phone directory, and initial partners Sprint Co rp. have since pulled away from the project due to conc erns about bad publicity and possible new government regulations. So, as of January 2005, even if the cell phone directory database was compiled as planned, at least 45% of US cell phone numbers wouldn't be include d In April 2005, USA Today reported that registrations for the national do- not-call list for the week ending April 2 were about double the normal l evel, and registrations for the following week reached a peak five times higher than average. First, it's illegal to make sales pitches to wireless phones by using automatic dialers which is how the vast m ajority of telemarketing calls are placed. They say any directory would include only those customers who a greed to participate and that the numbers would not be shared with telem arketers or anyone else.
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