By JEFF BELL
Business First of Columbus

Telemarketers would have a tougher time dialing up cellular-phone customers if three U.S. senators get their way.

Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa., have introduced the Wireless 411 Privacy Act to protect cell-phone customers from unwillingly having their numbers listed in directories.

Under the bill, cell-phone customers could not be listed in any directory without their permission.

Cellular companies would also be required to give consumers clear notice of their right not to be listed.

The rules would prohibit companies other than wireless providers from assembling and publishing directories of private cell-phone numbers. The bill would also require that numbers be removed from directories at no expense to consumers.

"The goal of the legislation is to prevent anybody from doing this," said Brown spokeswoman Bethany Lesser. "We want to nip it in the bud rather than fight these things as they come up again and again."

Brown sees the issue not only as a privacy matter but an issue of safety for children and victims of domestic violence, who could be harassed if their cell phone numbers wind up in the wrong hands.

"It's a little scary to think anybody could call you on your cell phone," Lesser said.

Solution without problem?

Companies are assembling and selling cellular directories, Lesser said, citing as an example Intelius Inc., which provides identity-theft protection and background and criminal checks on individuals.

The senators also have claimed that a national cell-phone directory is being assembled by the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, but the national trade group representing 280 wireless carriers says that isn't so.

Joseph Farren, an assistant vice president with the association, said the senators appear to be working from outdated information.

Some cellular companies looked at putting together a directory about three years ago, he said, but decided not to pursue it.

"We're not assembling, compiling or in anyway involved in putting together a directory," Farren said. "We have a problem with anything like that. We don't think anyone's phone number should be listed without that person's permission."

Verizon Wireless was the first cellular carrier to oppose the concept of its trade group assembling a directory, said company spokeswoman Laura Merritt.

"We do not believe that's what our customers want," she said. "That's the feedback we get from them."

Land-line telephone customers have a national Do Not Call registry aimed at limiting telemarketing calls, Merritt said, but nothing similar exists for cellular customers.

Verizon has a policy against giving customer information to third parties, she said, but it and other cellular carriers face a daily battle in trying to keep telemarketers from gaining access to phone numbers of their customers.

"These folks can be very creative in finding ways to access customer numbers and start pestering them," Merritt said.

Verizon, she said, has been active in seeking court injunctions to stop encroachments on its cellular telephone customers' privacy.

Information online

Some information brokers may be trying to sell cell numbers to telemarketers, but Intelius should not be lumped in with them, said Ed Petersen, executive president for the Bellevue, Wash.-based company.

Intelius sells numbers individually, at $14.95 a pop, but does not sell its lists to telemarketers, he said.

Petersen said a federal law prohibits telemarketers from using automated dialing equipment to contact cellular telephone customers. Without the operating efficiencies provided by such equipment, there is no viable business model for telemarketers to contact cell customers en masse, he said.

Intelius finds people's cellular numbers by searching utility, court, change-of-address, property, business and other public records.

Access to the numbers is helpful to many, from business people on the road to parents wanting to find out who is calling their children, Petersen said.

"We didn't create the site to violate privacy," he said.

Intelius executives haven't evaluated the proposed Wireless 411 Privacy Act, but it appears that it would have an effect on its cellular-phone search business, Petersen acknowledged.

At first glance, he said, it looks like Brown, Boxer and Specter need to recognize how consumers regard people-search services on the Internet.

A new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 60 percent of Internet users say they are not worried about how much information is available about them online.

"Once we educate people," Petersen said, "a lot of the concerns are put to rest."