Cell phone numbers may go public

What is Sprint's position on this? If they will participate in this going
public then it will be time to switch to Verizon.

http://www.hollandsentinel.com/stori...52304002.shtml

Cell phone numbers may go public
Some fear new directory will open mobile phones to telemarketers and spam




WASHINGTON -- Mobile phones, once immune to telemarketers and e-mail
spammers, could become as vulnerable as home phone lines and computer
inboxes when a wireless subscriber directory is published later this year.

Critics fear that the directory under development by the Cellular
Telecommunications and Internet Association will undermine privacy and flood
cell phones with unwanted calls and messages.

The directory is expected to include about 75 percent of the nation's 163
million mobile numbers. From those numbers, it would be easy to deduce the
addresses of phones that receive e-mail because in most cases the number is
the user name part of the e-mail address.

The association is pitching the directory as a boon for real-estate agents
and other on-the-go professionals who want people to be able to look up
their mobile numbers.

Privacy advocates, some members of Congress and even a major carrier --
Verizon Wireless -- counter that the promise of consumer choice is
disingenuous because many cell-phone service contracts contain clauses that
give permission to publish numbers.

They predict that there will be the kind of spam deluge that already plagues
mobile users in Europe and Asia, where full-featured phones are more common
than in the United States. Beyond that, it's unclear whether people would be
on the hook to pay for unwanted calls and e-mails.

In the 30 years since cell phones burst onto the market, wireless numbers
have remained mostly private because recipients of calls have to pay for air
time and, thus, have been reluctant to distribute numbers widely.

Carriers say they doubt there will be widespread abuse. They say most mobile
phones come equipped with caller ID, distinctive ring tones, call blocking
and other tools to manage unwanted calls. And several phone carriers say
they have made refunds to subscribers who have received unwanted calls.

Nonetheless, Verizon Wireless vowed not to include its 39 million
subscribers in the directory and chided the effort as "misguided."


--
"If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without
bloodshed,if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not
too costly,you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with
all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival.There may
even be a worse case;you may have to fight when there is no hope of
victory,because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."
---Winston Churchill

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(Oliver=A0Cromwell) wrote:
> What is Sprint's position on this? If they will
> participate in this going public then it will be
> time to switch to Verizon.

Its a logical fear, but I seriously don't think Sprint will do this...
if it ever happens anyways. Some companies have been threatening a cell
phone number directory for a couple years now.

Eric

In article <[email protected]>, rosewar12
@hotmail.com says...
>=20
> What is Sprint's position on this? If they will participate in this goin=
g
> public then it will be time to switch to Verizon.
>=20
> http://www.hollandsentinel.com/stori...52304002.shtml
>=20
>=20

We haven't decided if we'll participate, but we are already=20
absolutely clear in our privacy policy that personally identifiable=20
information *will not be released* without express consent of the=20
consumer.

Even if we participate, you would have to opt in to get listed.

--=20
R=D8=DF
O/Siris
I work for Sprint PCS
I *don't* speak for them