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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."
The only number telemarketers can't call me at. The article says telemarketers will be banned, but they are one industry I don't trust.
I think cellular phone users should be required to display their cell numbers on a bumper sticker on their cars so I can call them and tell them how shitty they drive when they cut me off on the Dan Ryan. It would be a nice release for those road rage emotions, don't you think?
What's that sound?
It's the sound of billions of trees crying.
Je t'aime Stéphanie
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
But where I am, this has been do-able for quite some time. It's actually an optional service for which the cellular provider here (yes, that's singular) charges the customer, to the tune of (iirc) $6.95 cdn PER MONTH. I work for a retailer that activates phones for the cell provider in my region, and I can't remember a single instance in which a customer actually wanted this feature.
It says, on the third paragraph down:
The centralized database of wireless numbers would be off limits to telemarketers, and consumers would be able to choose whether to have their numbers listed or unlisted, according to people familiar with the process.
I think the above makes their intentions clear
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.
Even if they do, luckly in Missouri, we have a "no call list" law that has TEETH in it. In two years, I've had only ONE telemarketing call, and when I filed a complaint, about 9 months later, I received a letter from the Attorney General of Missouri (form letter) stating the amount they had been fined. Once in a while, they come up with a law that works :)
Just because your number is a cell phone doesn't mean you're safe. All the marketers need is a prefix (like that's a big secret), then they set their automatic dialers to go down the list, starting with 0001 and on. Didn't you watch "The Simpsons"?
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
In Australia you have the OPTION to have your mobile number listed. I know a number of people who choose to do this, but the majority do not.
This is a sensible approach, as those people who want their number to remain private can keep it that way.
lounge around on the blue couch
You will have Cell Phone Number Portability once the FCC makes them. I think it next comes under review this fall.
The phone companies charge us for unlisted numbers on our land lines. On our cell phones, however, they've realized they have been giving away for free something most people want.
By switching the system as a so-called "benefit" - allowing people to find out our cells numbers to call us, which we have pay airtime for incidentally, they EXPECT that most people will say "hey! Keep my number unlisted!" To which they will happily say "Sure, we can do that for $6.95 a month." BAM! Instant stealth revenue enhancement in a very price competitive industry.
-Mp
"I don't about you guys but I personally do not want my cellular number to be made available so easily."
Since when did what you want/not want become a primary factor with business today? I don't like it either, but I'm not naive enough to believe they have my interests at heart. I'm surprised at your surprise.
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.
Read the next sentence: "Individual carriers would determine whether subscribers would have to pay to be unlisted." Want to guess what the carriers will decide?
If all the companies start charging for unlisted numbers, there's no competitive disadvantage to them, just as competition didn't protect us when the banks all decided to start charging for use of automatic tellers.
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
It's what the cellphone industry calls losing a customer. If a customer decides that they need a change of telephone number, say, because their employer got hold of it via 411, walks into a cellphone store and buys a new service, and then disconnects their existing service, this is called "churn".
Churn costs a lot of money. Virtually all cellphones are sold at below cost. Additionally, commissions are paid to the salespeople, and there's a certain amount per-connection that it would cost a cell company anyway. That's why if you have a compatable cellphone, rather than sign you up for free, most operators will charge you a connection fee, despite the clear insanity of such a policy.
So, if cellphone companies decide they're going to abuse this service and charge customers for the right to retain their privacy, then cellphone companies are going to find themselves incurring larger costs than they should. In a libertarian paradise, this means cellphone companies will not abuse this service, because those that would would realise the insanity of doing so. In the real world, most companies are run by privacy sucking vampire morons, who don't give a rats arse for the long term consequences of their slimy policies. In the real world, everyone will work the churn into their tariffs and we'll pay for the churn generated by policies designed to impede privacy. In the real world we're fucked.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
i submitted this story because my bank wellsfargo couldnt seem to stop calling me on my cell. i tried in good faith many times to get them to stop. i received over 5 calls from them. when i contacted my cellphone provider at&t on getting help on getting the numbers of the person calling because under the tcpa solicitations are not allowed to be made to phones. you guesed it though. att was about as much help as, well, dead flash light batteries when the power goes out.
-- botsex is {grep;touch;strip;unzip;head;mount}
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... =)
In the United States, it is a FEDERAL CRIME for a telemarketer to call your cell phone. Your number being "listed" does nothing to change that.
This is a "non-issue", at least with regards to telemarketing....
siri
In November, you'll be able to own your cell phone number. Expect a VERY high churn rate when that comes.
For years my local phone company had a policy stating you could _spell_ your name any way you wanted for the phone book.
So, for years I was listed in the phone book under an alias.
...Me: "Here's how I would like my name listed."
...Phone company rep: "Um, is that a roommate, or something?"
...Me: "Um, yep."
At least the "or something" part was true. This was quite a deal, since unlisted numbers cost an extra $1.25/month (something like that), but an aliased name was free. Now the phone is listed as [spouse's name] (she wants to be listed).
The alias method instantly identifies telemarketers, who can then be dealt with as you wish:
..."Is this Mr. [alias]?"
..."Add this number to your do-not-call list." [click]
..."May I speak to [alias]?"
..."Oh!" [adopt somber voice] "I'm so sorry, he died a week ago."
..."Um -- "
Method A)
Method B)
Email: slashdot3@FreeMars.org (Address will be abandoned when it gets spam.)
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.