Yay Verizon! (Obviously I'm part of the 53%)

Kansas City Star | 12/14/2004

Wireless 411

A survey by market research firm TNS found that 53percent of wireless phone users don't want a nationwide wireless directory. Even more — 56 percent — would opt out of such a directory, the survey found.

The proposed directory would be a database of numbers provided by Cingular Wireless, Nextel, Sprint PCS, and T-Mobile. Verizon Wireless opposes the directory and will not participate.

The companies contend they are responding to small-business owners, who increasingly are relying on wireless phones.

“Most consumers are not asking for this 411 mobile phone directory,” said Fran Maier, president of TRUSTe, an online privacy company that commissioned the survey. “The choice to keep their wireless phone numbers private, or to publish them in a directory, should remain in the control of the individual."