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Unlisted-Number Cost Challenged
from the unfair dept
There are plenty of reasons to complain about fees on your telephone bill, but the one that seems to annoy the people the most is the "unlisted number fee". I pay it, though I'm annoyed that I have to, and it has kept my phone line mostly free of telemarketers. Now, someone is fighting back and is starting a "campaign" to get the charges reduced or ditched altogether. His phone service is provided by Qwest which seems to charge about four or five times as much as I have to pay. The main argument on this is why should it cost a couple of bucks a month to have your number not listed? All they need to do is... wait... nothing. Even if the number is already in a list, they just need to delete it once. Nothing needs to be done every month, so there's no justification for paying a monthly service fee for them to not do something.
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Justification for charge
Unlisted numbers reduce the value of the telemarketing lists that they sell. The fee offsets that lost income.
I found a simpler solution. I ditched my home phone entirely. Cable modem for Internet access beats DSL and dial-up, and my cell phone handles my voice needs just fine (with free national long distance).
Also, not having a landline phone reduces the number of clueless telecom monopolies that I have to deal with.
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