Cell-only users absent from area directories

Fri, May 16 2008

— As an auditor with Creek Nation Casino, Kim Yandell says she might come into contact with 15 to 20 people each day.
However, try to look her up in a Muskogee telephone book and she disappears.
Like a growing number of residents, Yandell has dropped her home telephone, or land line, and uses only her cell phone. As a result, her name is not listed in area telephone directories, a service many land line users get with their accounts.
Yandell said she doesn’t mind not being listed.
“Everyone I talk to has my number and I don’t want to worry about getting prank calls,” she said.
Andy Morgan, area spokesman for AT&T, said cell phone customers often do not want their numbers published because they might have to have to pay for incoming calls.
“The receiver has to pay as well as the caller,” Morgan said. “The receiver either does not want to pay or to use up the minutes in his package.”
Muskogee cell phone customer Sonja Perrotta said she and her husband chose to drop their land line and just use their cell phone.
“The only tine we can use the land line is when we are at home,” Perrotta said. “And we have the cell phone in which people can reach us in emergencies. The land line just cost too much.”
Cell phone users also want more privacy, said Deanna Frink, spokesman for Cross Communications, of Warner, which offers cell phone and land line accounts.
“Due to identity theft, cell phone numbers are more secure than land line numbers,” Frink said. “There are more phone scams around that we can imagine.”
Cross has between 2,500 and 3,000 cellular customers around Muskogee, Tahlequah, Stigler and McAlester and 10,000 land phone customers.
Frink said people might be able to find some cell phone numbers by doing a Yellow Pages search on the Internet. A Yahoo People Search also can help find numbers of some people.
A 2004 story on the Fox News Web site reported that the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association had proposed a voluntary directory of wireless phone numbers by the end of 2004, but privacy advocates opposed the directory.
Frink said Cross has no plans for any cell directory.
Morgan said cell customers can be included in the AT&T directory for a charge. Residential customers would pay a $7.25 initial fee, plus $2 per month.
Perrotta said not being listed in the phone book causes a little bit of inconvenience.
“You get tired of everyone asking you ‘what’s your phone number,’” she said. She said she had never thought of putting her cell number in the phone book. “But I wouldn’t mind doing it.”

Reach Cathy Spaulding at 918-684-2928 or Click Here to Send Email

Photos

With more and more people using cell phones and disconnecting their land lines phone numbers are hard to find.