Mobile phone directory

I distinctly remember as a child always utilizing a pair of hollow-block thick phone directories as a stand to reach shelves to snatch items my parents had stashed away. If I were the same child today using our current phone directories, I would hardly reach the same shelves. Notice how our directories have shrunk? Seems like even the directories are on these current fad diets such as Atkins and South Beach. Seriously, because of reduced advertising budgets and the speed of today’s companies starting up and folding, by the time a print directory hits the streets it will in all likelihood already be out of date. That is why an online version which can be updated constantly and the voice-enabled directory assistance service are the only practical solutions.

Our current landline service is slowly headed toward sunset industry status like the telegraph. More homeowners now just opt to make do with the cheaper and more practical solution of assigning a mobile phone for their home communication needs. As this becomes more of the norm, finding people’s mobile number makes it more complicated than flipping through the usual white pages of a phone book. There simply isn’t any mobile phone directory in existence. The major obstacle to an undertaking such as creating a mobile phone directory is that entries change with such speed. It generally means that you are going to have a high proportion of "out-of-date" listings all the time. It’s a fact that anyone who doesn’t want to be traced can easily cover his tracks by constantly changing cellphone numbers through new prepaid SIMs. Despite this dilemma, there has been a recent clamor for such by the industry, most especially in Western countries like the US and the UK, although numerous consumers fear for their privacy with such a development. I myself am already sick of telemarketers on my landlines, hunting me down like wild game in a safari. God forbid, I wouldn’t want to start receiving such calls or text spams on my mobile phone as well. Those supporting the mobile phone directory project want to set it up so that you can only request the number based on a name, rather than get your hands on the entire directory – which, in theory, should eliminate the type of phonebook dialing that many telemarketers engage in. The other part of the debate has been over whether such a directory should be opt-in or opt-out. The folk behind it have made a very odd sort of agreement on this, implying they could make it "opt-in," but that you will have to pay if you don’t want to be included or "opted out." To put it simply, a new fee could simply start showing up on your bill, and the way to get rid of it, would be to give out your mobile phone number. I thought I had heard of every legitimate racket that existed, but amazingly there is one hatched every day.

Interestingly enough is the recent market study in the US made by the research firm The Pierz Group. It gathered that 52 percent of US mobile phone users would be willing to opt in to a wireless 411 directory assistance/inquiry (DA/DQ) service provided that there is some specific privacy protection in place. The Pierz Group believes that the difference is due to "ongoing media coverage of this topic" as well as last year’s implementation of a national do-not-call list, which makes it illegal for telemarketers to contact phone numbers on an opt-in list. As for me, the only way to remain invisible from these vulture telemarketers is to keep my mobile phone number guarded like it were the family jewels. What do you think?

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Patrick R. Garcia is the managing director of Bidshot Wireless Services. For comments or suggestions, type TXTCITY <space> <message> and send to 2920 or e-mail [email protected].