Cell Phone Number Listings Could Soon Be Available

[Kadie]

Cell Phone Number Listings Could Soon Be Available
Law Would Require Cell Phone Companies To Get Permission To List Numbers

POSTED: 3:20 p.m. EDT May 14, 2004
UPDATED: 3:30 p.m. EDT May 14, 2004

Most people say they believe their cell phone numbers should be private and confidential. However, those numbers could soon be listed, just like your home phone number.

"What the phone companies want to do is to put everybody's cell phone number in a directory so that anyone can call you at any time unless you pay your cell phone company to unlist your cell phone number," Rep. Edward Markey, of Massachusetts, told WCAU-TV in Philadelphia.

Markey has introduced a law called the "Wireless 411 Privacy Bill." It has three main points:
Existing phone subscribers would have to opt in, which means they have to agree to being listed.
New subscribers could opt out and say no to being listed.
No fees could be charged to anyone for being unlisted.

The Cellular Telephone and Internet Association says a privacy bill is unnecessary.

more... http://www.thekcrachannel.com/technology/3306491/detail.html

[Piperay]

1. The day they list my cell phone number

is the day I get rid of the phone. :argh: It's bad enough that my regular phone is almost unusable but I count on the cell phone for calls that I want to receive and not people harrassing me, if I can't count on that than I see no point in even having the phone. :mad: