# 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:** 6
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Bootis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootis)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2008, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-numbers-go-public-tomorrow/470139/61 "2008-10-31T08:25:14Z")
Does everyone here answer their cell phones even if they don’t recognize the number? Voicemail is free, if I don’t know who’s calling, they can leave me a message.
---
### Author:  [@mks57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mks57)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2008, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-numbers-go-public-tomorrow/470139/62 "2008-10-31T10:08:10Z")
> [@Zoe](#):
>
> You can’t just record any sound you want and use that as a ring tone?
Some phones make that difficult, or impossible, in order to generate revenues for the carrier.
---
### Author:  [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2008, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-numbers-go-public-tomorrow/470139/63 "2008-10-31T13:28:10Z")
> [@Bootis](#):
>
> Does everyone here answer their cell phones even if they don’t recognize the number? Voicemail is free, if I don’t know who’s calling, they can leave me a message.
My pay-as-you-go plan charges each time I access my voicemail.
---
### Author:  [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2008, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-numbers-go-public-tomorrow/470139/64 "2008-10-31T14:06:37Z")
> [@sailor](#):
>
> > [@Musicat](#):
> >
> > ALL 800 numbers (formerly called inward WATS) are paid for by the recipient – that’s the whole point, to make the call free for the originator.
>
> What’s that got to do with the future price of pork bellies? Toll-free numbers exist in all other countries too. We are talking about, when calling a cell phone, whether the caller or the receiver should pay for the wireless segment of the call.
Pork Bellies? Nothing. But it has everything to do with **colophon’s** statement that “The idea of having to pay for a phone call that someone else makes to me just seems totally ridiculous”. I pointed out that the concept of paying for an inward call has been around for a long time and is in common usage. Perhaps **colophon** forgot about it, but it has more relevance to this discussion than pork bellies, that’s fersure.
---
### Author:  [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2008, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-numbers-go-public-tomorrow/470139/65 "2008-11-01T16:30:21Z")
Again, we are all well aware of toll-free lines. We are discussing private people having to pay to receive calls. What is so difficult to understand? In America you pay to receive a call on a cell phone, in Europe you don’t. That is what we are discussing. We are not discussing toll-free numbers. We are not discussing sex lines. We are not discussing pork bellies.
---
### Author:  [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2008, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-numbers-go-public-tomorrow/470139/66 "2008-11-01T16:48:43Z")
> [@Dead\_Cat](#):
>
> My pay-as-you-go plan charges each time I access my voicemail.
Not if you retrieve your messages on a landline phone (assuming calling your cell number from a landline you have access to is free). I think that’s what **Bootis** meant.
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-numbers-go-public-tomorrow/470139.md?page=3)