Qualcomm Inc (QCOM)

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Cell Phone Numbers may go Public in Directory
LAST UPDATE: 5/21/2004 6:45:03 AM
Posted By: Gabe Redondo

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.

"The world of telecommunications continues to change, and every day wireless becomes a more significant part of our world," said Steve Largent, the association's president. "This system will provide consumers an opportunity to opt in, if they choose."

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.

"I don't want the world to know my cell-phone number," said Rep. Joseph R. Pitts, R-Pa., who has introduced a bill to prevent wireless-phone companies from automatically including customers in the directory without getting their permission and from charging customers if they want unlisted numbers. "This is a big privacy issue."

It's also a big money issue for an industry suffering through brutal price wars. A wireless directory could generate as much as $3 billion a year in fees and additional minutes by 2009, according to a study conducted by consulting firm Zelos Group Inc.

http://www.woai.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=93EF19DD-D3E2-4400-938B-2BFDE1E6A39E