U.S. Lawmaker Seeks Hearings on Cellphone Directory

WASHINGTON —  Citing unanswered privacy questions about a controversial directory being developed by the mobile phone industry, Rep. Joseph R. Pitts (R-Pa.) on Thursday called for congressional hearings into the matter.

The Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Assn. is assembling a cellphone directory that would list as many as 75% of the nation’s 163 million mobile phone users. Privacy advocates worry that the directory will make mobile phone users vulnerable to telemarketers and e-mail spam.

One carrier, Verizon Wireless, has refused to participate in the project.

“We’ve heard a lot of promises about this database,” Pitts said. “Seems to me like there are a lot of unanswered questions about whether carriers retain the right to list users without their knowledge or permission.”

Pitts added: “I think it’s time we got some definitive answers to questions about how a central database listing of wireless numbers will impact the privacy of wireless users.”

The industry group’s spokesman, Travis Larson, said the hearings were unnecessary because “in this highly competitive marketplace, carriers have a simple choice: protect and value consumers or lose them to a competitor.”

The organization has said the directory will be voluntary. And in a letter sent to Pitts last year, the group said “the privacy and integrity of the master database is of great importance to wireless carriers.”

The telecommunications association added that “fears that telemarketers will abuse the wireless ... database are groundless” because the federal do-not-call registry allows customers to make their numbers off-limits to sales calls.