Cell Phone Directory Coming Soon

applemasker writes "According to this story on Yahoo News via the L.A. Times, an upcoming cell phone directory which supposedly includes 75% of all cell users is in the works. Some people are already receiving cell phone spam and telemarketing calls. Worse yet, unless you opt-out at the beginning of your contract, some carriers such as T-Mobile can gladly hand over your info (though the article says that T-Mobile is changing the contract now). Some good news though, Verizon Wireless has said that it will not share its customer lists. Still, maybe it's time to submit your cell number to the Do Not Call List if you haven't done so already." We had a related story last year.

Re:Expensive

[TheBeardIsRed]

it is, read more here: How To Make A Telemarketer Cry (or, Suing Bozos for Fun & Profit) - http://www.panix.com/~eck/telemarket.html

may not be as bad as it sounds

[winsk]

According to this article [sun-sentinel.com], the CTIA claims that all the carriers who are going along with the plan are doing so on an opt-in basis for existing customers, and an opt-out basis for new customers, without any additional fees.

Re:Do Not Call List

[strictnein]

one hand it's like a free list that unscrupulous telemarketers can get and spam

I believe there is a charge for the list, and they have to get the list quarterly.

Strangely enough, the Direct Marketing Association feels that it is necessary to charge people $5 to help get them off the list [dmaconsumers.org] if they do it online! What a scam. They don't link to the official site [donotcall.gov] at all.

Re:Before banning a directory...

[pknoll]

This is already illegal for telemarketers. In 2004, the government's amended telemarketing sales regulations proscribed the sending of their phone number when calling and, if possible, their name.

Re:Verizon

[Anonymous Coward]

...and that's why you never, ever sign up for a contract for cellular service.

Of course another great reason is that at the rate technology is improving, in a year or two the contract will become a noose. How about when the new plans include unlimited data transfer for less than you're paying for voice only now?

Try one of the prepaid plans. At AT&T for example it's 25 cents/minute (which is high if you use it a lot so it's not suitable for everyone), but there is no contract, no hidden fees like the fake taxes that were dicussed here recently, and unused minutes roll forward. For very light use, you can have a cell phone for $3.50/month including extras and taxes with AT&T. That $3.50 doesn't force you to use 14 minutes either; if you use less than 14 they still roll forward.

Re:Before banning a directory...

[baudilus]

There are already facilities to block calls block their caller ID information. Not only for cell phones, but for land lines as well.

From this site [sover.net] (which I believe is standard across land lines):

Anonymous Call Block--(Included with Caller ID and Caller ID on Call Waiting, and available as a stand alone feature.) This option has some notable caveats, so please understand what it will and will not do before ordering or activating. Basically, this features allows you to reject calls coming from parties who have enabled Caller ID block on their line, thus preventing the display on your ID display unit of their name and/or number (you see "Private Caller"). Such callers are redirected to a message telling them you are not accepting ID-blocked calls and that they need to remove the block and call back if they wish to each you.

Note: This means that some cellular calls and calls from business's PBX phone systems may not get through to you. Callers on those systems may not be able to remove the ID block in order to have their call ring through.

This feature will not screen out most telemarketers' calls, nor any other calls where the caller's telco does not transmit ID info or the info is not available (these display as "Unavailable," or "Unknown Caller," or similar). Again, it works only on calls where the caller has enabled their own Caller ID block ("Private Caller").

* To activate: press *77
* To deactivate: press *87

Re:Do Not Call List

[Senior Frac]

https://www.donotcall.gov/FAQ/FAQConsumersNew.aspx [donotcall.gov]

Q: Can I register my cell phone number?
A: Yes.

This was true when the list was first started as well.

Re:Expensive

[rwiedower]

And here's the official FCC link [fcc.gov] to the TCPA which details that it is illegal to call not only a cell phone, but also hospitals or any service where someone is charged for the call. Read. Learn. Fight back.

What a coincidence....

[NIN1385]

I have wireless service through iwireless(formerly Iowa Wireless) who is an affiliate of tmobile. They recently sent me a notice that they were raising their prices by like 3 dollars. The reason they said they were raising the price is because of the bill that passed allowing a customer to take their cell phone number with them anywhere they go.

I have many friends with cell phones through different companies, and none of the other companies seem to be raising their prices at all because of this bill. T-mobile is a horrible company that doesn't give a shit about the customer, everytime I had a problem with them they simply told me that is the way it is and they wont make any effort to change it. I don't know where they got their business practices but where I come from the customer is ALWAYS right!

I am now switching to Verizon for reasons such as them not giving out the personal information of customer THAT PAY FOR THEIR SERVICE! Until companies start caring about the customers and not their profits...their profits will continue to go down.

I highly reccomend to anyone that is considering moving to T-Mobile or any of their affiliates to think twice and look at Verizon or Nextel instead. Peace...

Re:Terrible!!!!!

[The_K4]

I have sprint and have only gotten 1 spam sms message to my phone in 5 years i've had a cell. I reported it to SPRINT PCS and the tech said that with the exact time of the message and the number it was sent to they could get the IP address of the sender's computer. If you get spam on your phone report it!

Re:illegal???

[JuggleGeek]

I believe it's on a state-by-state basis.

No, it's not. Telemarketing to cell phones is already illegal and has been for some time.

The FCC has information on their website [fcc.gov].

In Europe...

[Jott42]

You have to remeber that they are talking about the US. It is new there. And it is a problem, as they are paying for incoming calls. And they seem to not have a general, working do-not-call registry(?).
Strange, but true.

(Have Karma, flame away...)

Re:Already on the DNC list

[JuggleGeek]

I didn't enter my cell phone number when I joined the DNC list. It isn't getting any telemarketing calls anyway, and telemarketing to cell phones is illegal according to the TCPA [fcc.gov] already, so it seemed unnecessary. If I start getting telespam calls to my cell, *then* I'll register it.

This is a pretty pointless story...

[Caeda]

All cell phones are already a "Do Not Call" telemarketing item. You don't have to be on any list because its the same as a fax machine. You pay the charges for the call because its your minutes, and so they can be reported and fined with no signup.

Telemarketing outside the USA

[Anonymous Coward]

As far as I know it, in New Zealand, Australia, Europe and Asia, it's free to receive cellphone calls, generally speaking. Callers can tell by the phone number prefix that it's a cell phone, and they pay when they call.

(Yes, that means you can receive all the calls you like on your cellular phone for something like $10 US per year to stay connected.)

There are schemes like call-diversion that send calls to (e.g.) your home phone line to your cellphone. In these cases the cellphone user pays because they made the decision to send the call over the cellular network.

It's no wonder cellphone penetration is so low in the states when having a cellphone means taking on a huge liability for bozos ringing you up!

Why is the system so different in the US to everywhere else?

Cell phone been registered

[SnapperHead]

I registered my cell phone and house line at the same time. Since I use my cell more then my house line, I figured it was important.

However, there are a lot of ways for telemarketers to get around it. First off, they claim its not a sales call, when it fact it damn sure is. Second, they make it look like it was something I requested.

I got 5 calls total from a local (same state) car dealer. They claim I submitted a request via car.com and couldn't verify anything beyond that. They also claimed all of this was via E-Mail and I was talking to a rep for 2 weeks about a car.

a) They couldn't verify my E-Mail address, opps sorry, its listed as unknown or invaild.
b) Its a car I never would buy to begin with.
c) I called there managment each time telling them to stop calling me before I file a complaint.

Needless to say, not only did I file a complaint with the FTC, I also filed a complaint with the BBB and the local police. They are looking into changes being pressed for harrasment.

This is the only problem I have had so far with cell phones and telemarketers. Eitherway, I would be VERY pissed if they called my phone, if I didn't have an unlimited package through nextel, so for me its not a big deal.

I just hope if they are building a directory of cell phone numbers, they include some sort of feature to allow customers to request there names and numbers NOT be included.