# Cell phone numbers go public tomorrow
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-numbers-go-public-tomorrow/470139
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 29, 2008, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-numbers-go-public-tomorrow/470139 "2008-10-29T20:15:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2008, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-numbers-go-public-tomorrow/470139/1 "2008-10-29T20:15:14Z")
I received a forwarded email from my Wife. I checked snopes and don’t see anything about it. Is this legit?
\> REMINDER…
\>
\> All cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing
\> companies
\>
\> tomorrow and you will start to receive sale calls.
\>
\> YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS.
\>
\> To prevent this, call the following number from your cell
\> phone:
\> 1-888-382-1222.
\>
\> It is the National DO NOT CALL list. It will only take a
\> minute of your
\> time.
Thanks
---
### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2008, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-numbers-go-public-tomorrow/470139/2 "2008-10-29T20:17:43Z")
> **[Are Cell Phone Numbers Being Given to Telemarketers?](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cell-phone-numbers-given-telemarketers/)**
>
> Rumors that cell phone numbers are going to be released to telemarketers if their owners don't sign up with the Do Not Call registry are false.
This email has been circulating for _years._
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### Author:  [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2008, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-numbers-go-public-tomorrow/470139/3 "2008-10-29T20:21:24Z")
I find it amazing that Americans have to pay to receive calls. In the rest of the world, nobody pays to receive calls on their mobile.
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### Author:  [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2008, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-numbers-go-public-tomorrow/470139/4 "2008-10-29T20:24:59Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#):
>
> [Are Cell Phone Numbers Being Given to Telemarketers? | Snopes.com](http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/cell411.asp)
>
> This email has been circulating for _years._
Yeah, thanks I just found it. Not to good at searching snopes I guess.
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2008, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-numbers-go-public-tomorrow/470139/5 "2008-10-29T20:27:12Z")
I’ve had to pull that snopes article a few times, so I knew how to find it, but whenever there’s a phone number involved (this is how I found it when it ran in our local newspaper) I just google the phone number and it came back with the snopes article.
---
### Author:  [@Fish\_Cheer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish_Cheer)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2008, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-numbers-go-public-tomorrow/470139/6 "2008-10-29T20:42:19Z")
> [@Desert\_Nomad](#):
>
> I find it amazing that Americans have to pay to receive calls.
I agree. What’s the reasoning behind it?
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### Author:  [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2008, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-numbers-go-public-tomorrow/470139/7 "2008-10-29T21:06:39Z")
> [@Desert\_Nomad](#):
>
> I find it amazing that Americans have to pay to receive calls. In the rest of the world, nobody pays to receive calls on their mobile.
I have never paid to receive a phone call on my cell phone. Unless one exceeds the number of minutes they pay for with their carrier, no one pays to receive phone calls. This is probably true anywhere in the world.
---
### Author:  [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2008, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-numbers-go-public-tomorrow/470139/8 "2008-10-29T21:10:33Z")
> [@racer72](#):
>
> I have never paid to receive a phone call on my cell phone. Unless one exceeds the number of minutes they pay for with their carrier, no one pays to receive phone calls. This is probably true anywhere in the world.
Elsewhere in the world, you don’t pay to receive cell phone calls even if you exceed the number of minutes you pay for. Also, received phone calls don’t count against the minutes you pay for.
Ed
---
### Author:  [@Furious\_Marmot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Furious_Marmot)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2008, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-numbers-go-public-tomorrow/470139/9 "2008-10-29T21:12:44Z")
Monthly rate for X minutes plans have been standard in the US for a decade at least. 15 or so years ago, when cell phones were the size of a telephone book and many people called them car phones, you did, in fact pay by the minute for incoming and outgoing calls. Makes you wonder just how old this email is.
---
### Author:  [@SeanArenas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeanArenas)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2008, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-numbers-go-public-tomorrow/470139/10 "2008-10-29T21:14:12Z")
> [@racer72](#):
>
> I have never paid to receive a phone call on my cell phone. Unless one exceeds the number of minutes they pay for with their carrier, no one pays to receive phone calls. This is probably true anywhere in the world.
I think what they’d meant is that outside of America, you aren’t charged minutes against your monthly total when you receive calls, only when you place them.
In America, we pay for “Minutes used,” whether they are incoming or outgoing.
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### Author:  [@Spezza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spezza)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2008, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-numbers-go-public-tomorrow/470139/11 "2008-10-29T21:19:18Z")
In Canada two of the largest cellular providers now charge for unsolicited incoming text messages! This is what happens when the State doesn’t regulate the industry.
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### Author:  [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2008, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-numbers-go-public-tomorrow/470139/12 "2008-10-29T21:26:11Z")
> [@Spezza](#):
>
> In Canada two of the largest cellular providers now charge for unsolicited incoming text messages! This is what happens when the State doesn’t regulate the industry.
The industry is heavily regulated. Just not the way you specifically want in this instance.
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### Author:  [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2008, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-numbers-go-public-tomorrow/470139/13 "2008-10-29T21:56:46Z")
> [@racer72](#):
>
> I have never paid to receive a phone call on my cell phone. Unless one exceeds the number of minutes they pay for with their carrier, no one pays to receive phone calls. This is probably true anywhere in the world.
This is contradictory. This is like me saying I have never paid to get into a movie. Because I buy the ticket and then get into the movie for free. So you pay for a plan which includes X minutes and those X minutes are free? How are they “free”?
The whole point is that in Europe received calls are free as in really, truly, free. They do not count in any way, shape or form. You can have a pay-as-you-go phone with a balance of 1 euro and if you make no calls but receive calls all the time, three months later your balance is still 1 euro.
In Europe the philosophy seems to be that whoever makes the phone call pays for it and mobile phones have different prefixes so the caller knows he is making a call to a mobile phone and will pay for it.
In America the philosophy seems to be that the user has a cell phone for his own convenience and pays for that convenience himself and the cell phones have the same local area codes so the caller does not know he is calling a cell phone.
I like the European system better.
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### Author:  [@Laudenum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laudenum)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2008, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-numbers-go-public-tomorrow/470139/14 "2008-10-29T22:00:50Z")
> [@Desert\_Nomad](#):
>
> I find it amazing that Americans have to pay to receive calls. In the rest of the world, nobody pays to receive calls on their mobile.
:eek:
Why on earth do they do that?
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### Author:  [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2008, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-numbers-go-public-tomorrow/470139/15 "2008-10-29T22:04:42Z")
> [@sailor](#):
>
> In Europe the philosophy seems to be that whoever makes the phone call pays for it and mobile phones have different prefixes so the caller knows he is making a call to a mobile phone and will pay for it.
So to make sure I understand, if I use my home phone to call a cell phone, I’m charged extra for the call? (“Extra” as in, more than it would have been had I been calling another land line.)
What about cell to cell calls? If I use my cell phone to call a cell phone, do I pay extra, above what I would have paid if I had used the cell phone to call a land line?
-FrL-
BTW I use a “pay as you go” plan and to my recollection all the plans I looked at when shopping around required payment for both incoming and outgoing minutes. So payment for incoming cell calls definitely happens.
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### Author:  [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2008, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-numbers-go-public-tomorrow/470139/16 "2008-10-29T22:08:06Z")
> [@Laudenum](#):
>
> :eek:
> Why on earth do they do that?
Because historically in the US almost everybody had land line phones with unlimited local calls. When cell phones first came out people were upset that they had to pay extra for calls to local cell phones. There is no easy way in the US to tell if a number is a land line or a cell phone. So the decision was made to make the owner of the cell phone pay for the air time.
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### Author:  [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2008, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-numbers-go-public-tomorrow/470139/17 "2008-10-29T22:10:40Z")
> [@gazpacho](#):
>
> So the decision was made to make the owner of the cell phone pay for the air time.
To be clear, the maker of the call _also_ pays for the airtime. Both pay.
-FrL-
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### Author:  [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2008, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-numbers-go-public-tomorrow/470139/18 "2008-10-29T22:12:24Z")
Addressing the OP: Telemarketers already call my cell phone.
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### Author:  [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2008, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-numbers-go-public-tomorrow/470139/19 "2008-10-29T22:14:33Z")
> [@Frylock](#):
>
> To be clear, the maker of the call _also_ pays for the airtime. Both pay.
Only if both are mobile phones.
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### Author:  [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2008, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-numbers-go-public-tomorrow/470139/20 "2008-10-29T22:16:24Z")
> [@Frylock](#):
>
> So to make sure I understand, if I use my home phone to call a cell phone, I’m charged extra for the call? (“Extra” as in, more than it would have been had I been calling another land line.)
I would like to know the answer to this as well. Quick googeling did not yield an answer.
> [@](#):
>
> What about cell to cell calls? If I use my cell phone to call a cell phone, do I pay extra, above what I would have paid if I had used the cell phone to call a land line?
A quick googeling make it seem that this is a lot like the US. It depends on the cell phone plan. It look like there is a lot of free in network calling in Europe just like there is in the US.
> [@](#):
>
> -FrL-
>
> BTW I use a “pay as you go” plan and to my recollection all the plans I looked at when shopping around required payment for both incoming and outgoing minutes. So payment for incoming cell calls definitely happens.
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