At a time when millions of Americans are concerned about their privacy, cell phone companies are pushing ahead with a plan to put customers’ wireless numbers in a public directory.
The industry will lay the groundwork to integrate wireless numbers into existing 411 directory assistance service in January. By spring, several wireless phone companies will start asking customers if they want their number listed.
Most customers are likely to say “no,” according to surveys.
Despite the resistance, the wireless industry–which has grown to more than 170 million handsets–believes that listing cell phone numbers is necessary to make its service fully competitive with wired phones.
But a weary public, already suspicious of privacy intrusions, increasingly wants to be left alone. One-third of wired phone customers now pay a fee to keep their numbers unlisted.
Yet by summer, wireless numbers could be available when people dial 411. How many cell phone numbers will be listed, however, is far from clear.
A recent survey found that only 10 percent of consumers said they would volunteer their wireless numbers for directory assistance. The survey of more than 1,000 consumers also found that 53 percent opposed a nationwide wireless directory, according to market research firm TNS which conducted the survey.
“I’m on the phone thousands of minutes a month with customers, and I don’t want to be interrupted by someone calling to sell me something,” said Michael Panitch, a Chicago interior designer.
Nonetheless, Cingular, Sprint, T-Mobile and Nextel are pushing ahead with the idea while Verizon Wireless and U.S. Cellular will not participate. Qsent Inc., based in Portland, Ore., has been hired by the participating carriers to manage the directory.
“This will be done on a privacy-protected basis,” said Greg Keene, Qsent’s chief privacy officer. “If you go on the list and later decide to get off, you can do so with no history.”
Furthermore, he said there will not be a published list, like the White Pages, for wired phones. “We will make individual numbers available to 411 operators, but we won’t supply the entire database to anyone.”
The idea of putting customers’ cell phone numbers into directory assistance troubles John Rooney, chief executive of Chicago-based U.S. Cellular Corp.
“I don’t understand the arrogance of an industry that goes ahead with this when our customers tell us they don’t want it,” he said. “Not one of our customers has ever asked to participate in this.
“Even the customers who don’t get mad don’t trust us. I just get ticked off that the leaders of our industry could do something to raise so much customer ire.”
Concern that wireless numbers will be made available to telemarketers–a fear driven by misinformed e-mail messages circulated across the Internet–has sparked new interest in the federal government’s do-not-call registry. More than 3 million new numbers were registered in the first two weeks of December, officials at the Federal Trade Commission said.
The list of numbers, which is off limits to telemarketers, usually gets only about 200,000 additions a week.
The fear that telemarketers will pester wireless customers once their numbers are public is misplaced, said Keene. Because it costs anywhere from 50 cents to $1.50 to call 411, telemarketers likely would find it unprofitable to use the service to gather numbers, he said.
Still, public unease with the notion of wireless numbers in directory assistance appears to be causing some firms to rethink their strategies. Last week, Sprint executives decided against asking their customers to participate in a wireless 411 service next year.
“We still support the concept, but we’ll wait out 2005 to see how it goes,” a spokesman said.
Denny Strigl, chief at Verizon Wireless, does not support the concept and said that privacy of cell phone numbers is something customers value greatly.
“Let’s as an industry stop pushing something on customers that they clearly don’t want. It’s a dumb idea,” he said.
But other cell phone operators believe that without a wireless directory their service is incomplete when compared with wired phone service, said Jeff Fishburn, a spokesman representing the carriers establishing the service.
“The goal is to draw more people to wireless for communications,” he said.
Assuring nervous customers that their cell phone number can be listed without drawing unwanted calls is difficult.
“Once your number gets into any database, it’s out there, and you can’t get it back,” said Bob Bulmash, founder of Private Citizen, a Naperville-based privacy advocacy group.
“Marketers are getting more sophisticated since the do-not-call list was enacted,” he said. “Now when you check out at a retail store, they ask you for your phone number.”
The phone industry has been slow to address privacy questions associated with customer phone numbers, said Kathleen Pierz, an independent telecom consultant based in Clarkston, Mich.
“Phone companies internally don’t pay much attention to directory assistance,” she said. “It’s not a top priority.”
With the proliferation of ways to reach people–e-mail addresses, cell phone numbers, short message addresses–there is a growing need to make contact information available in ways that let people control their privacy, she said.
“Right now the choices are limited to either list or don’t list your number,” she said.
An alternative would be to enable someone who calls 411 to leave a message for a person whose number is unlisted, Pierz said.
Qsent’s Keene said new technologies such as Internet telephony already allow greater freedom in managing calls. Internet phone users can program their phones so that certain callers–their spouse, children or boss–can always get through. Others, such as customers or colleagues, get through during working hours but go into voice mail at other times.
Unknown callers might be programmed to always go into voice mail and unwanted callers would only get busy signals.
“Once people get that kind of control, they’ll be more willing to list their numbers,” Keene predicted.
Calling out for answers
Q. Will wireless numbers be listed without consent?
A. No. Wireless companies will not release a number to the directory without the customer’s permission.
Q. If my wireless number is listed for directory service, will it cost anything?
A. There are no charges to be put on the list. Likewise, customers will not be charged to stay off the list.
Q. Does the federal do-not-call list apply to wireless phones?
A. Any number, wireless or wired, can be placed on the do-not-call. Go to DoNotCall.gov or call 888-382-1222 to register your number.
Q. Why is the industry pushing a concept so many consumers oppose?
A. An estimated 8 million wireless customers don’t have a wired phone and aren’t listed anywhere. Many cellular carriers argue that these and other customers should be able to make their numbers public if they wish.
Q. Do telemarketers support this plan?
A. They have no position. It is unlawful to use an automatic dialer–the technology favored by telemarketers–to call a wireless phone.
–Jon Van
