Mobile numbers to be added to 411

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.

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.

Source: CNN