Firm Lines Up Support For Mobile Phone Directory

Anyone who sees the U.S. as a country of cell phone-clutching, e-mail-checking people obsessed with being constantly connected might be surprised at the uproar over plans to offer a public directory of mobile phone numbers.

Late last year, news that most major cellular providers planned to make numbers available in the first directory of cell phone numbers gave rise to an urban legend of sorts that telemarketers were lining up to buy the list.

The fears might well be unfounded. Yes, a mobile telephone directory is in the works. But the company assembling the list, privately held Qsent, pledges not to make numbers available to telemarketers. Qsent says it will not compile a printed list at all, just make the numbers available in directory assistance for people who call 411.

Portland, Ore.-based Qsent, founded in 1998 and venture-funded, provides contact data for a variety of industries, including banks and collection agencies. Its goal here is to get wireless carriers behind the directory.

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