Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Cell phone industry close to wireless 411- Carriers May Charge For Unlisted Numbers

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 15:02:08 -0400

Posted on Sun, Apr. 20, 2003

Cell phone industry close to wireless 411
By Brian Bergstein
ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW ORLEANS -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 hosted a
huge industry trade show in New Orleans last month.

While the industry quietly moves toward establishing wireless 411,
that kind of consensus and cooperation was absent at the CTIA
show when it came to the explosion of the wireless Internet
access technology known as WiFi.

Because WiFi uses unlicensed airwave frequencies to
inexpensively radiate Internet connectivity over short distances,
every day brings news of aggressive plans to deploy WiFi "hot
spots."

IBM Corp. said earlier this month it would work with two
technology companies to infuse 1,000 truck stops with WiFi access.
Toshiba and Accenture are touting a package of hot spot gear and
network management software.

But analysts, WiFi providers and companies thinking about joining
the fray say the technology will be hindered unless the industry
lets users seamlessly roam from one WiFi network to another.

No one really wants to buy access in one airport, only to have to
pull out the credit card again and sign up anew at a downtown
cafe.

"We need universal roaming across hot spots more than we ever
needed it with cellular," said Sky Dayton, founder of Boingo
Wireless, a company working to link WiFi hot spots with each other
-- and with the slower data networks that send information to
wireless phones.

But while some companies say they can facilitate aspects of WiFi
roaming, WiFi operators and would-be providers say big issues
have yet to be worked out -- including how to link billing systems
and assure a consistent quality of service among hot spots.

David Chamberlain, an analyst with Probe Research, said wireless
phone carriers might be in the best position to bring about WiFi
roaming because they already have relationships with millions of
customers and billing software for cellular roaming.

But that day doesn't seem near.

Nextel Communications CEO Tim Donahue said Tuesday that WiFi
is not "ready for prime time yet." Sprint PCS chief Len Lauer said
he's discouraged to see free WiFi hot spots popping up in hotels
and other public places because that might make it difficult for
anyone to profit off it.

"The cellular operators," said Lawrence Brilliant, chief of WiFi
wholesaler Cometa Networks, "have got to decide whether they
see it as friend or foe."

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes/5676017.htm

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