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FOOI #15: Make a White Pages for mobiles

Daniel Piotrowski

by Daniel Piotrowski

27 Oct 05:40am

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Filed under: Communication, Festival Of Obvious Ideas, Society, Whitepages

48 comments

When I was growing up, my family had a tattered, handwritten book of friends’ phone numbers sitting next to the landline in the kitchen. If we wanted to call someone who was more of an acquaintance though, we’d have to look them up in the phonebook to give them a bell.

Posing? Us? No waaaaaaaay. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Times have changed. Today, if you want to get a stranger down the end of the line you probably won’t hunt for their number in a phonebook. You might look them up on the White Pages website and find their landline number, but who needs Ye Olde Home Phone in this day and age?

More than 10 per cent of Australians don’t even have them anymore. It’s a number that’s sure to climb. Landlines are both irrelevant and surprisingly moneysucking. You aren’t likely to find many from this mobile-only demographic in the White Pages either, because there’s not a whole lot of numbers starting in 04 in there. So this brings me to today’s obvious idea: make a White Pages for mobile phones.

Why the hell isn’t there one now? If you’ve ever tried to track down somebody’s mobile number on the internet you’d know just how difficult it is. While you CAN get your mobile listed in the White Pages, it’s something you’ve got to ask for, it doesn’t happen automatically.

“We’d love for people to include their mobile number in their listing,” White Pages spokesperson Damian Glass told The Punch yesterday. “The thing is, landlines are almost like the default position, whereas with the mobiles it’s an opt-in.

“[With landlines] people request silent numbers and all that sort of stuff, but if you don’t request a silent number, based from the information we receive from carriers it goes in.”

To get your mobile in the White Pages, you have to approach your mobile phone carrier. “You’d need to go to your carrier and say you want your mobile included in the listing,” he says.

So why not make it the other way around? When you buy your phone, your mobile phone should be put up on the listing unless you state you don’t want it to.

Obviously there are some privacy concerns. But they’re not concerns that have overly troubled us in the past. Most home phones are listed in the White Pages, and you wouldn’t have thought twice about people using the phonebook to get in touch with you while you’re in the privacy of your own home.

What’s wrong with people being able to contact you wherever you are? A mobile directory would help you get in touch more directly. Just like your landline, you’d have the opportunity to opt-out of the listing if you didn’t want it on there.

And you can always just hang up the phone if someone’s annoying you.

Why stop with mobile numbers and landlines? People get in touch with you in a plethora of ways nowadays.

The White Pages could list your Facebook accounts, your business numbers and your multiple email addresses.

One directory for contacting people no matter how you want to talk to them: a personal chit-chat over Facebook, a business call, whatever.

At a time when we’re swamped by technology, making it a little more simple to get in touch with someone wouldn’t go astray.

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48 comments

Show oldest | newest first

    • Ghost says:

      05:04am | 27/10/11

      FOOI # 16:

      “...who needs Ye Olde Home Phone in this day and age?  More than 10 per cent of Australians don’t even have them anymore…”

      90% of us then?

      Reply

    • Chris_D says:

      07:20am | 27/10/11

      Thank you Ghost.  I thought exactly the same thing.  The Punch may be having a festival of obvious ideas, but it seems the obvious evades some people. 

      Maybe they need to have a Festival Of Better Journalistic Writing instead.

    • Daniel Piotrowski says:

      07:37am | 27/10/11

      Having one doesn’t mean you need it.

    • Babe in the Woods says:

      07:46am | 27/10/11

      @Ghost.  That was funny!  The obvious idea people miss the obvious.  Big smile for the day now

    • Juz Sum Guy says:

      08:08am | 27/10/11

      You might have it as part of an ADSL package, or to give the olds a cheap phone number to call.

    • benni says:

      08:27am | 27/10/11

      I only have a home phone because at the time I was unable to get an internet connection without it.  We make maybe 10 landline phone calls/month, most to the local Chinese takeaway, but we’re locked into our internet contract, therefore we’re locked into having a phone line.

    • Bev says:

      09:05am | 27/10/11

      A home phone does say you money.  Many are not aware that those 13,1300 numbers you ring to be placed on hold for ever are only charged as a local call if you ring on a landline.  Many telco’s charge
      the standard mobile timed call rates.  You can rack up a real big bill real quick.

    • Kev says:

      10:19am | 27/10/11

      When the power goes out, you’ll wish you had ye olde home phone wink Besides, you need it to get hooked into the web, unless you’re on a naked plan which I don’t think a huge amount are.

    • neo says:

      11:59am | 27/10/11

      I have a phone line because I’m on ADSL but the phone itself is switched off because of all the stupid survey calls etc. Honestly, with how cheap mobile calls are nowadays, there is no need for landline calls.

      As for the directory for mobile numbers, HELL NO, the last thing I need is randoms finding out my mobile number and calling me to sell me something or just to plain annoy me. Also, if you compile a database of mobile phone numbers like that, people will surely use it to sign you up to spam lists. Horrible idea.

    • acotrel says:

      05:42am | 27/10/11

      White pages for mobiles would be like Henry Ford’s AA model. It almost sent him broke when he couldn’t sell all the spares he’d made because the car was so good.  Do you really think Telstra will put a phone directory on mobile phones, while they cop the charge for connecting calls after you ring directory service ? Telstra managers, in their own cynical way, always put profits before customer service.

      Reply

    • Daemon says:

      08:25am | 27/10/11

      Well done Acotrel. Especially since this is the festival of the obvious.

    • Confused Fuddy Duddy says:

      08:25am | 27/10/11

      acotrel.  If you have no idea do not make comment.
      1. It was the Model A! Not AA
      2. It made Ford millions, what nearly sent the broke was that it was kept in production for too long the competition overtook it in the market. Not the inability to sell spares.
      3. Directory assistance cannot connect you to any unlisted or silent number. If it is not in the phone book (Or not intented to be) assistance cannot assist. I’m sure Telstra would just love the ability for people to use directory assistance to get mobile numbers. As they would love people to use more download time to access White pages on smart phones..
      acotrel, you should first make sure that you have a shovel and the shovel can actually penetrate the ground that you want dig before you dig!

    • acotrel says:

      05:14pm | 27/10/11

      @Confused Fuddy Duddy
      The Ford Model AA came into production after the Model A in about 1930, shortly before the Model B. It looked like a Model A but was better engineered to the extent that it used hardly any spares.

    • Unionist says:

      06:09am | 27/10/11

      “who needs Ye Olde Home Phone in this day and age?” spoken like a true city slicker completely ignorant of rural life. Perhaps the author would do well loaning his trusty cell phone to his grey-nomad grand parents and see how easy it is for him to contact them as they travel the great unknown where some of us still live.

      Reply

    • juz Sum Guy says:

      08:10am | 27/10/11

      Somehow I don’t think the grey-nomad grand parent will be using a fixed line while travelling. There’s that pesky wire…

    • Confused Fuddy Duddy says:

      08:33am | 27/10/11

      Unionist. I do provide my Grey-nomad parents a mobile, and they do use it. A land line (Fixed line phone) is by defintion not the travellers’ most usefull piece of apparatus. Although they may be able to use the hand piece to knock a few chips off a few Country folks’ shoulders.

    • Direct says:

      08:57am | 27/10/11

      I’m feeling ya, Unionist. I live a urban centre and I still need a landline because the mobile reception at my house sucks big rubbery ones.

    • Bev says:

      09:00am | 27/10/11

      Coverage is not exactly good one you get out of the city limits.  Many I know deliberately switch them off and just check once in a while for messages and missed calls.  Who wants to be available 24/7 when you are seeing this country of ours, very distracting.

    • Ghost says:

      09:11am | 27/10/11

      LOL at you city folks who don’t realise there is no mobile coverage in parts of this country.  If you never make it off the suburban bitumen you never know though do you (that was the point Unionist was making).

    • Unionist says:

      11:05am | 27/10/11

      Ghost says:10:11am; You got it! but shhhh the intelligence of some people is amusing.

    • neo says:

      12:02pm | 27/10/11

      Well, the country folk can do what they want, landline phones, two cups tied with a string, whatever works best :D I think we are talking about urban areas here, where landlines provide so much annoyance without any benefit.

    • Merryl Chantrell says:

      06:20am | 27/10/11

      Sure give someone or two or three a job compiling all of that data

      Reply

    • Darren says:

      01:45pm | 31/10/11

      It’s not so hard to do. It’s a legal requirement to present ID (99% of the time it’s a driver’s licence, passport or proof of age card) and in the case of contracts you need to provide something with your current address on as well. Yes, that means that you provide ID for activating pre paid numbers as well. Some carriers make you fill out a form in store, but most of them require you to activate the number before you can use it (and they get your details then)

    • Super D says:

      06:21am | 27/10/11

      I can’t think of anything worse than having all of my contact details, home, mobile, emails, facebooks etc listed publicly.  Imagine the spam emails and unwanted phonecalls.  this isn’t an obvious idea, its a moronic one.

      Reply

    • centurion48 says:

      07:52am | 27/10/11

      @Super D: Agree 100%. There is a freakin’ good reason that the No Call Register was introduced. I suspect most people with landlines (us minority 90%) would be even happier if the system was extended to ban charities from cold calling.
      Also, just recently, Telstra lost a High Court case about intellectual property ownership of White and Yellow Pages data. Now it is open slather and telemarketers can harvest any and all information they can find in electronically collated databases.

    • Chris_D says:

      08:22am | 27/10/11

      @Super D, centurion: +1.

    • Daemon says:

      08:33am | 27/10/11

      True @Centurion. Then we get this:

      Hello?
      Good evening Sir, this is RJ calling from Over The Top Communications in Melbourne.
      What do you want?
      I am calling to tell you that your next bill is only $49 including all calls.
      Oh.. good. Are you sure? Is that figure set in stone?
      Yes Sir (Please imagine massive head wiggling in both directions at the same time). How much is your current phone bill sir?
      Last month it was $182,000
      (Moment of silence…) how much? (Rising tone in voice…approaching a squeak).
      $182,000. And you are going to do it for $49?
      Sir, can I call my supervisor.
      Of course..
      (Supervisor comes on) Good evening sir, how are you today.
      Fine. Can you hold on one minute?
      Yes sir, of course with pleasure. (Imagine mad head nodding again)
      Place phone on desk.
      Go back to what I was doing. 10 minutes later go back to hang up the phone.
      Hello?
      Shit are you still there?
      Hang up.

    • KH says:

      06:28am | 27/10/11

      Oh yeah, I would love for ‘charities’ to bother me on my mobile phone.  That would be fantastic.  Do not call should apply to any cold callers - including charities. Change that law first.

      Reply

    • Gerry says:

      06:56am | 27/10/11

      Why not have a white pages for email as well?

      Reply

    • VVS says:

      07:12am | 27/10/11

      Yeah… that’d decrease spam.

    • Chris_D says:

      07:17am | 27/10/11

      IMO the point of having a mobile phone is for those who I want to be able to contact me at any time, for any reason, to be able to do so, not for anyone and everyone to get my number.  If they don’t have my mobile number, they haven’t made my list.

      Reply

    • Al says:

      07:44am | 27/10/11

      I was going to post a similar comment. Particularly as I don’t show in the ‘standard’ white pages at the moment (the landline isn’t in my name).

    • Kebabpete says:

      07:41am | 27/10/11

      In my apartment block we just had new phone books delivered recently. They all sat in the stairwell outside each door for over a week. I eventually gathered up all 12 of them and threw them in the recycle bin. I did the same thing 6 months earlier with the local yellow pages.

      In a time when everyone is whinging about becoming more green why would we want to print more paper. Besides, I’ve never not been able to find a number. If its a friend or acquaintance its already in my mobile contacts, or at the very least its one call away. Who else would I need to call on their mobile?

      Reply

    • Davey says:

      11:12am | 27/10/11

      Even a pdf iPad version would be better, for off line browsing.

    • Gordon says:

      07:45am | 27/10/11

      Yes I would really like to have someone from the IT service centre call me up to tell me I have a wirus on my computer and they can fix it for me twice a week.

      Can someone please change the law so land lines are opt it?

      When you register your home phone, you can use any name you like. My name in the white pages is H. Simpson.

      Every time I get a call that starts with hello Mr Simpson, I hang up immediately.

      Now don’t you go calling me.

      Reply

    • SKAllen says:

      08:15am | 27/10/11

      As one of the 10% without a landline (not just a personal landline, I don’t have a work landline either), I really wish that companies would let you fill out contracts without a landline. It’s getting really frustrating having to put in my parents’ landline when I don’t even live with them. I’ve had the same number since I was 15, it’s not like I’ve chopped and changed constantly and I can provide proof of residency and work. Companies need to start adjusting to the mobile phone era, not just the phone book companies (unfortunately I think telemarketing and charities have already grasped the mobile phone era… I really wish they hadn’t).

      Reply

    • Jem says:

      08:37am | 27/10/11

      My mobile phone is listed in the white pages, however, it is at an adress I haven’t lived in for over 10 years.  I haven’t changed service providers, and my phone company manages to send the bills to the correct address, however, my whitepages listing is still for another city.  The product isn’t much good if it isn’t kept current.

      For those complaining about the paper cost of the phone books, you can access the white and yellow pages online, which is more useful as you can search the whole country.

      Reply

    • Greg says:

      07:06pm | 27/10/11

      Prob is that online white and yellow pages directories are inaccurate. Examples: search for a timber yard search reveals only a financial company; a person’s number doesn’t appear online but does on paper—and those directories are great for whacking people and not leaving bruises.

    • Dani says:

      08:42am | 27/10/11

      Would make a journalist’s job easier, hey, if everyone’s mobile numbers were listed!

      Reply
    • Daniel Piotrowski

      Daniel Piotrowski says:

      08:52am | 27/10/11

      Ah Dani, you see right through me.

    • Phil says:

      08:42am | 27/10/11

      Worst idea ever.
      In a time when we should be making privacy and security of our details more private and secure you want to catalog mobile numbers, what next email addresses and FB \ G+ links?

      There is more than enough spam going around via phone and email as it is, why make it follow you on your mobile?

      Reply

    • Generation Yer says:

      08:58am | 27/10/11

      I haven’t used the paper copy of the white or yellow pages for 10 years - its almost archaic to actually turn pages over! My guess is most other generation Yers would be in a similar position, I wish they would stop automatically sending the books to every single residence. In my block of flats they either go straight in the bin or sit outside in the stairwell indefinitely, it is so incredibly wasteful.

      Reply

    • Phil says:

      09:37am | 27/10/11

      Maybe you should put them in the recycling-bin instead if you are that concerned?

    • Jolanda says:

      09:45am | 27/10/11

      Goodness me the size and print size of the Yellow and White pages is already so small that it is for the most part unable to be read easily even by those with 20/20 vision. 

      If they added more numbers, they would have to come with a magnified glass to be able to read them.  Don’t know who thought of that idea but surely people do not use them because it is almost impossible to read them.

      Education – Keeping them Honest
      http://jolandachallita.typepad.com/

      Reply

    • Get real says:

      09:52am | 27/10/11

      I suppose you know the percentage of landline numbers that are silent by choice compared to the listed ones then?

      Reply

    • Nic says:

      10:01am | 27/10/11

      White/Yellow pages are one of the most ridiculously outdated concepts imaginable. The fact they still exist is both baffling and a massive waste.

      So I dislike the idea to begin with because it’s hugely and unnescessarily wasteful.

      Then I dislike it second off because there’s a few key differences between a landline and a mobile

      1) Landlines are for your house only. As you said, mobiles are everywhere. No-one wants those kind’a calls when outside, with mates, in hospital or so forth.

      2) More importantly getting someones mobile number means you have full access to spam them with unnescessary and unwanted texts. It’s bad enough I get texts from Vodafone constantly telling me about new offers, if everyone took this service up I’d be drowning in spam.

      Reply

    • Utopia Boy says:

      02:12pm | 02/11/11

      Who wants everyone to be able to contact them all the time. Once your number is in the White Pages, you are simply a target for telemarketers.

      Reply
 
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