Commercial interests are gearing up to benefit from making our personal cell phone information to the public.

Soon 411 will be able to sell your cell phone number to make extra money from its service. You'll have to pay extra if you want to keep your number unlisted.

I think this is horrible news -- A directory service for cell phones only makes sense if you have to opt-in to it, not if the burden is on you to not only opt-out of it, but pay for the privilege.

Now we'll have to pay to be unlisted!

This seems more like a service you should have to pay to be included in, not the other way around.

Cell phone's are largely "private" lines. If someone wants their business line listed, they can take the time to list it. The average person shouldn't have to take up their time and valuable resources to make sure they've opted out.

Also, one mistake and the average person will have to foot the cost of getting a new phone number, so they can "try again" at protecting their privacy.

Please let me know if anyone knows how this can:

1) be stopped.

2) changed from an "opt-out" policy to an "opt-in" policy where the burden will be placed on the people who want to participate, not the people who want to protect their privacy.

3) be "opted out" of, at NO CHARGE, with confirmation IN WRITING, so a company can be taken to court if a mistake is made, and far enough (like a year) in advance of the roll out that we can no for sure that our privacy will be protected.

4) be made a built-in requirement for customers to be provided with a freely-available opt-out option at the same time they purchase a cell phone to make it as easy has possible to protect their privacy.

Privacy needs to be the default -- not the paid-for exception.

Please keep an eye out for developments on this front and let me know about them! Thanks!

Wireless numbers to be added to 411
Large cell phone carriers on board with plan, source says

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.

Individual carriers would determine whether subscribers would have to pay to be unlisted.

Other privacy options are possible, too.

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.

The nation’s largest carriers are on board with the plan, according to an industry source who spoke on condition of anonymity. Their support makes sense: If carriers charged a dollar or so for 411 requests for a wireless number that could be a huge revenue boost for an industry struggling with high debts and tough competition.

Here is the full text of the article in case the link goes bad:

http://www.msnbc.com/news/887175.asp?cp1=1

Wireless numbers to be added to 411
Large cell phone carriers on board with plan, source says

ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW ORLEANS, March 18 — 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. That’s about to change, however. After years of hesitation, cellular providers are getting close to making wireless numbers available to 411 callers.

The 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.

ALTHOUGH THE INFORMATION service probably won’t be available until next year at the earliest, some details already are clear.
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.
Individual carriers would determine whether subscribers would have to pay to be unlisted.
Other privacy options are possible, too.
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.
The nation’s largest carriers are on board with the plan, according to an industry source who spoke on condition of anonymity. Their support makes sense: If carriers charged a dollar or so for 411 requests for a wireless number that could be a huge revenue boost for an industry struggling with high debts and tough competition.
About 5 percent of U.S. households have gone totally wireless and eliminated traditional landlines, according to the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, which is hosting a huge industry trade show in New Orleans this week.

WIFI ROAMING REMAINS DISTANT
While the industry quietly moves toward establishing wireless 411, that kind of consensus and cooperation has been absent at the CTIA show when it comes to the explosion of the wireless Internet access technology known as WiFi.
Because WiFi uses unlicensed airwave frequencies to inexpensively radiate Internet connectivity over short distances, every day brings news of aggressive plans to deploy WiFi “hot spots.”
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IBM Corp. said this week it would work with two technology companies to infuse 1,000 truck stops with WiFi access. Toshiba and Accenture are touting a package of hot spot gear and network management software.
But analysts, WiFi providers and companies thinking about joining the fray say the technology will be hindered unless the industry lets users seamlessly roam from one WiFi network to another.
No one really wants to buy access in one airport, only to have to pull out the credit card again and sign up anew at a downtown cafe.
“We need universal roaming across hot spots more than we ever needed it with cellular,” said Sky Dayton, founder of Boingo Wireless, a company working to link WiFi hot spots with each other — and with the slower data networks that send information to wireless phones.
But while some companies say they can facilitate aspects of WiFi roaming, WiFi operators and would-be providers say big issues have yet to be worked out — including how to link billing systems and assure a consistent quality of service among hot spots.

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David Chamberlain, an analyst with Probe Research, said wireless phone carriers might be in the best position to bring about WiFi roaming because they already have relationships with millions of customers and billing software for cellular roaming.
But that day doesn’t seem near.
Nextel Communications CEO Tim Donahue said Tuesday that WiFi is not “ready for prime time yet.” Sprint PCS chief Len Lauer said he’s discouraged to see free WiFi hot spots popping up in hotels and other public places because that might make it difficult for anyone to profit off it.
“The cellular operators,” said Lawrence Brilliant, chief of WiFi wholesaler Cometa Networks, “have got to decide whether they see it as friend or foe.”