If you remember back about a year to 18 months ago, there was a raging controversy
over whether the establishment of a "wireless 411" directory would impose on the privacy of cellphone
users.
Cut to the present, and the issue is pretty much DOA. In fact, as this story from Wired indicates, Qsent, the company that was chosen to put all the data together into a directory, says there has been little to no activity on the issue and subsequently there is no launch date planned for any time in the foreseeable future.
It seems that privacy concerns expressed by wireless service providers and subscribers has pretty much put the kibosh on this wireless 411 directory, despite research indicating that a majority of mobile users would find it useful.
Will this project be resurrected in any significant way? It's hard to tell at this point. People are much more zealous in guarding their privacy in general, and the idea of their cellphone number being exposed in a directory may not be palatable.
