Good news: No progress on wireless 411

Still, a horde of wireless carriers — Alltel, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile — are supposedly banding together to create such a directory. We say “supposedly” because there has been little or no progress to the directory, which was to be operational last year. Notice the absence of one major carrier: Verizon. They think this is as bad an idea as we do, though for slightly different reasons.

Others, including Verizon’s president, have stated the list is a terrible idea and could easily be misused and subject users to unwanted sales calls.

Yeah, the sales call thing is another aspect that has us wishing no one even had the idea to create a wireless directory. Remember, this is not the same business model as landlines, where the caller pays all fees. When you call us, we’re wasting minutes, too. Proponents of the deal will argue that the directory would not be published; it would only dole out numbers through 411. That still doesn’t make us feel any better about it. When Chuck Schmuck finds our number through 411, we’re not going to be too happy. Many people in the telecom industry are getting way too caught up in the fact that people are ditching their landline for wireless. They basically want to change the cell phone model so that they can continue to spam you. Here’s the thing, though: we like the cell phone model. Yes, there are drawbacks, like the fact that it costs money when someone calls you. But for that sacrifice, we get privacy. Here’s a phone that is on us all the time, but unless we want you calling us, you won’t have the number. It’s a sweet luxury that we’re not prepared to give up. Wireless 411 would undermine that. We would have less privacy, yet would still be subject to incoming calls costing us money. That simply is not fair, and should not even be an option. In other words: leave us alone. We mean that in the most friendly way possible. [Lake Sun Leader]]]>