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, 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.
While the industry quietly moves toward establishing wireless 411, that kind of consensus and cooperation has been absent at the CTIA show when it comes 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 said this week 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."
Copyright 2003. Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
