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Cell Numbers To Be Added To 411
darthC0der writes "Looking for a friend but don't have her phone number with you? For now, you can call directory assistance for her home number, but her wireless digits are off limits from 411. Not for long. The cellular providers are now getting close to making the cellluar numbers available to 411 callers. Here's the link to a CNN article. I don't about you guys but I personally do not want my cellular number to be made available so easily."
One of the nicest things about having a cell is that only the people I give my number to have my number. They say telemarketers wouldn't get their hands on the numbers, but how long would it take before they paid someone off or obtained the list by some other not quite proper way?
I'll just have to stop answering this phone, too...
Jeremy Baumgartner
family situations? there are 4 of us on one account, all going to onw name. the head of that account is not going to be obvious to all who are searching for you. how do they plan on getting around that....or do they at all?
xao
xao
http://TheHillforum.hopto.org
i don't really mind if i'm listed on 411. having switched from my home phone to cell to avoid telemarketers, i would like for others to be able to get in touch with me without telling them my new number one by one. as long as there are laws in place for telemarketers to not be able to spam me with more crap on my cell phone.
Since cell phone companies won't let you keep your number when you switch providors, this will cause much confusion. It will thus be very hard to keep the directory up to date.
So does this mean that I have to now pay a per-minute charge for telemarketers? Who is liable for all the lost minutes that will accumulate? Also, does this mean text messaging will get even more spam filled? It seams that with this, marketing will actually cost consumers, I hope this isn't just the first in a long line of consumer-paid-for advertising. Also, I expect a lawsuit over this, once it's too late.
According to the article cell companies may choose to charge people to have their number unlisted. That sounds like a privacy lawsuit waiting to happen.
consumers would be able to choose whether to have their numbers listed or unlisted
The question is, what is the default option? Will we have to tell them we don't want to be listed like we have to do with land lines?
Work sucked, until it became unemployment, when it became slightly more tolerable. -Tet
yourself this. When is the last time you've ever used 411? I don't think I ever have.
But I could be wrong. Maybe a lot of people use it.
YOU SUCK BALLS!
I recommend reading this. It is illegal for telemarketters to call any number for which the callee is charged. I've put my cell phone on lots of forms and so forth and never gotten a spam call to it so I suspect the telemarketroids are sufficiently spooked by legality issues to not call it.
Verizon has already successfully sued text messaging spammers. I expect calls from telemarketers (if any) would be made during the day, aka peak hours (most expensive). Which carry a higher price (over allocated minutesper month) than text messages. I'd like to assume my cell carrier would bludgeon anyone who started doing unsolicited calls on their network.
Perhaps if people that called me were charged instead of me having to foot their bill. I would go for a setup where telemarketers could call me all they want. I would listen to them for 5min and then my phone bill would be credited $10!
Cell companies have such a monopoly because I can't switch carriers and keep the same cell number.
I can do this with my residential number though.
Anyone know if this will be changing in the future?
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
BTW, I don't have a cellphone. I hate them, partly because even with people you don't mind calling you occasionally, it's so nasty when they can call you anywhere. A lot of people say "you can switch it off", but I see lots of the same people cursing at their phones ringing in inappropriate time. Apparently, it's not that easy to make one's self switch it off...
VKh
I'm still waiting for my cell phone to get normal caller ID for people who aren't in my phonebook. Anyone know of a provider who offers this, or why no one does?
Paying for only outgoing calls would be quite a stupid thing to do for a wireless provider, as what people would do, is call person X, say "Hey person X, call me back." then hang up.
You can do that only with your close relatives. For example, my wife has a plan at 40 a minute, and land calls pay only 10. We do exactly what you say, but the telephone company still gets money.
By being unlisted, you are costing them money. They will get it back one way or another. Believe it or not, telephone service among other things is a private enterprise! You don't own your number, you just purchase the right to use it for a time. The phone company actually owns the rights to that number and can do with it as they please.
I am interested to see what happens when telemarketers call however, since it's true about them not being able to call a number where the called party pays. Either the telemarketers won't buy a shitload of useless numbers, or cell phone providers will start shelling out free incoming calls to everyone since they can sell the number that way. Of course then a telemarketer would know which calling plan you're on which has to be some kind of invasion of privacy... Hmm, very tricky. Watch and see what promo's they come out with...
In other world news I'm going to copyright my phone number! Unless someone can prove prior art, given the complete idiocy of our patent system I should be able to get away with it. Then under the DMCA, I can sue anyone attempting to use my number by calling it since they would be entering copyrighted material without my permission. Brilliant I tell you... =)
Whats even better will be when teenage kids will have their cell phones on in movies (they always do) will get calls for things they won't buy anyways(I'm with you by not trusting the telemarketers, they will find a way to use this) and my movie going experience will be interupted even more frequently.
Visit www.seriouslythough.com
In November, you'll be able to own your cell phone number. Expect a VERY high churn rate when that comes.
Ok, I actually happen to work for a company that provides directory assistance (411) and I am currently a directory assistance and toll operator (0). I have learned that from my experience with directory assistance customers are that they are generally the stupidest people you will ever have the privelege to speak to. So... adding cell phones to the database is going to be horrific not only from the consumer point of view, but from my point of view as well!
People already think I can find phone numbers from license plates, social security numbers, and other stupid things. I haven't had too many customers request cell phone numbers in the 10 months I've been working there and about half of them get pissed off when I tell them we do not provide such information.
There are already limitations on our searching, as in we need to know an area to search for... searching the United States for something is just insane! This is one reason your directory assistance operator may refer you to toll-free directory assistance (800-555-1212) if you ask for a toll-free number. However, some companies like Delta Airlines actually lists their toll-free numbers in seemingly ever major city in the United States... so a simple statewide search usually finds a toll-free number for Delta. It's too difficult to search the entire United States for a toll-free number, that's why there is a toll-free directory service available.
Now before you people think I've went off on a tangent, I'll put things together here. Many people who have cell phones do not live in the area in which their cell phone number is located. This creates a problem... a big problem. Even though software can search "surrounding cities" it is no guarantee that it searches all of them.
OK, so now that problem number one has been identified, I'll go on to explain problem number two. People are stupid... beyond stupid. If you think I'm joking or exagerrating then you are sadly mistaken... I honestly had no idea people were this stupid until I started working there; it's really bad. Knowing that, people will expect directory assistance operators to give them the cell phone number of a person in a certain city... not the city they live in or the city their phone number is located in, but the city they are currently in! I can already see it "give the number of the guy on such and such street, he's doing 90!" Me: "I have no idea who that is." Them: "Well there aren't too many people on this street, it can't be that hard!!". I only wished I was joking...
So here it is, two problems which are going to aid in the difficulty in finding cell phone numbers and when directory assistance can't find a number... people are highly pissed. If customers are highly pissed with our inability to find correct cell phone listings, then all kinds of crap happens.
Oh, and who is going to maintain this database? If it's anything like the national telephone database then it's going to be about useless for residential listings. The national database seems to always be on the slow side of updating things and if we find errors (and yes, I find a good many errors) noone fixes them! The company I work for has no way to force corrections to be made! So if the national database sucks... is this one going to be any better? Most likely not.
Ok, this post is pretty long, I should probably end it here.
its called prepaid cellular, no one knows who you are, and if you value your privacy, its the only way to go.
I hate sigs.
I don't know about the American cell phones, but my phone always displays who is calling or, if they have set up their phone to prevent their number being disclosed, says "Private Number". If I give out my number to someone I have typically received their number in return and they are filed away in my address book, so when they call their name comes up instead of a number.
My point is, if you are really that concerned about getting phone spam then maybe you should treat your mobile like your e-mail account: if you don't recognise it, don't answer it! And if you do answer it doesn't cost you anything to hang up the phone. Really guys, there are bigger things to worry about than whether someone is going to ask your opinion about your favorite brand of milk.
My 2 cents
Hmm. Listing my number (unless I submit to extortion) is a signifigant change in my service. This would void my one year contract and exempt me from any early termination fees, I'd think... There is probably a clause in the contract that allows them to change their obligations without allowing me to change mine on a whim, but it would be fun to see them defend several thouseand individual consumer fraud actions against them...
Call waiting is rude. Voicemail and answering machines allow for us to be polite.
Answering machines are for when you are not near your phone. They cannot be used with cell phones. It is a nice way of saying "I am not here, but your planned interruption of my life is important so I'll listen to your message later."
Voicemail is for when you are not near your phone, or are on the phone. It is a nice way of saying "I am busy at the moment, but your planned interruption of my life is important to me so I'll listen to your message later."
Call waiting is for when you are busy. You tell the person you are with that they are not the most important person in your life. You check the new caller. Then you probably tell them that they are less important to you than the person to whom you were already speaking. It is almost impossible to use without being rude to at least one person. There are exceptions, such as interrupting gossip to take a call from work, or interrupting work to take a call while your child is at the hospital, but they are rare. Most people think that an incoming call must be answered. Many people seem confused if you are not waiting patiently when/if they remember to switch back to you. The answer to "Can you hold a moment?" should usually be "No."
I am sorry that you believe that hearing your voice at the moment you decide to allow it to be heard is the most important action any of your acquaintances could possibly do. Maybe if you dealt with more people you would understand the uses of technology. Maybe if you understood modern technology you would deal with more people. And if you have a system for receiving messages, and never retrieve them, then you are incredibly rude: having the system implies that you will listen to the message, so you are lying to your acquaintances. (Of course they probably will not "deal with you" again because they are still waiting for you to call back.)
I spend my life entertaining my brain.
From the article:
For example, wireless phone users might choose to be unlisted but willing to receive a short text message, sent through the directory service, from someone trying to contact them.
I can see this situation:
411: We cannot give out that phone number because it is a cell phone.
Telemarketer: But I really need to contact them.
411: You could send a message to 4841234567@attws.com.
Telemarketer: Thank you. I will do that.
The only text messages I receive are from ATT advertising their text services. The only text messages I sent were little romantic sayings to a girlfriend, but they did not do well because she could not discover how to read them. This was not entirely her fault: it was her first cell phone, she only had it one month, and Nokia buried the messages 3 levels into the menus.
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Someone asked why cell phones do not have true caller ID. They only display the phone number, unless the number and name are in the phone book in the cell phone. I had asked ATT about this. They said that Verizon was refusing to let them into the local phone directories. I will believe anything evil about Verizon, but this seems silly:
1. Verizon cell phone customers have the same poor caller ID as ATT customers.
2. Every telemarketer, phone book publisher, and 411 operator has access to that list.
I believe that the cell phone companies are just too lazy to build the system properly.
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And good news for me:
Verizon turned off my land line on WED MAR 12. On FRI MAR 14, I received a snailmail notice that they would shut it off on MAR 24 if I did not pay the $60 that was 20 days overdue. Today (MAR 21) they are probably trying to leave me a voicemail about the proposed shutoff.
I warned them last year that if they ever shut off my service again it would not be turned back on. Last year's shutoff was due to Verizon's computer problems. I was on auto-pay at the time, but they charged me to have the phone lines restored. When they would not refund the charges, I turned off one phone line and made the threat.
So they are permanently losing a customer. No more land lines for me. Yeah!
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The Slashdot quote for this article was appropriately:
The more crap you put up with, the more crap you are going to get.
I believe that summarizes the entire telecommunications industry.
I spend my life entertaining my brain.
A friend in the locksmith biz operates almost exclusively by mobile phone. He has a yellow pages ad, of course; it costs him a fortune. The yellow pages company (same as the phone company) won't let him list his mobile number in his yellow pages ad. So, he has to get a (more expensive) business land line, which he forwards to his mobile phone. When he's "closed" for business, he stops the land line forwarding and lets the voice mail answer the business line. After all, he only gives out his land line number, and nobody can get his mobile number, right? Well, now he will (likely) have to pay extra to have that mobile number be unlisted. For essentially the same service, he will have to pay both to be listed and unlisted.
Sometimes I worry that I'll develop Alzheimer's disease, but no one will notice.
Um, that's part of the reason why you receive telemarketing calls on your cell.
One of the main reasons telemarketers cannot call cell phones in the US is because the receiver has to pay. With land line phones the receiver pays nothing, so telemarketers are free to waste everyones time. I'd rather pay for the incoming calls I care about while totally eliminating those that I never want to hear.
The ultimate plays for Madden 2006
I don't want my cell phone company giving out my name/number to a directory. How much do we value having a dedicated phone number for our cell phones mapped into the locality of area codes and prefixes? We don't need it. Much like people use NAT on the Internet, we don't need dedicated telephone numbers for everyone. If a cell phone provider were given a 3-digit identity (###) for every 2-5 million subscribers with their own 7-digit phone numbers (xxx-xxxx):
1. 1-877-700-0### xxx-xxxx - The cell customer pays toll charges if not on a nationwide plan). A mobile phone company might make money letting people use vanity toll free numbers like (87-SLASHDOT) to access their customers.
2. 700-0### xxx-xxxx - Configured from within each LATA.
If I make an outbound call, the caller ID (without extensions to Caller ID) is the 700-0### phone number. If you don't like getting calls from mobile phone users, block it. If I want to have a caller-ID when I call, I can pay my phone company extra money for a random 7-digit number in some area code (think of it like a static IP address).
1. It gives customers more flexibility in choosing their vanity mobile numbers.
2. It helps prevent further area code depletion.
3. It can map well to Internet services (eg: xxxxxxx.###mobile.us). (Make ###mobile.us a reserved name at NIC.US).
4. It gets us out of the locality mindset that the phone companies were found upon and maps better to today's nationwide phone service. It's not just cell phone companies, other virtual phone companies like Vonage (www.vonage.com) are springing up.
I would be a customer of the mobile phone corporation that would not list my information in a public phone company directory. If I want to advertise my number in a directory, I can get my mobile number mapped to a static land line number for the local ILEC to publish in their white pages. Yellow pages are another thing entirely (not an issue).
-ez
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