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From: bsherman@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (Bob Sherman)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Unlisted Numbers and CompuServe's Directory Service
Message-ID: <15856@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 7 Jan 91 08:25:52 GMT
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>[Moderator's Note: The command is 'GO PHONEFILE'. And yes, the service
>is great to have around although I think the surcharge is a bit steep.
>I did not find any business numbers listed however; did you?  PAT]

The service being offered on CIS as PHONEFILE is a much watered down
version of the Metromail service to which it is gatewayed.. If you
think the surcharge is a bit steep, try it with a direct account :-)..
they demand a $1,000 per month minimum billing for the full service
and each search costs between .45 & somewhere around $2.. When you
figure how many searches you could do in an hour on CIS, you could
come out way ahead even though most of the power on the real system is
not available on the CIS front end..

I know of other systems that also gateway to the Metromail system, and
one of them charges between $25-45 PER search hit..

You will NOT find any business addresses or phone numbers in the file
as it consists only of residential information. There are a couple of
exceptions to this rule, but once again, the watered down front end at
CI$ does not allow you to access them.

So while the $15 per hour surcharge may seem a bit high to you, it is
a real bargin compared to the cost if you were to subscribe directly..
The cheapest way to use the service is designed for mass mailers, who
can supply tape reels with their mailing lists on them, and for
something like .30 per hit, they get address corrections, nine digit
zip codes etc.

At last claim the database contained about 64 million residential
phone numbers, 80 million addresses, and around 114 million names.
They make no claims about having unlisted phone numbers, even though
they may well still have your name and address along with a phone # of
000-000-0000.  However once in a while, an unlisted phone can sneak
it's way into the file without them knowing it is unlisted. They use
many sources to collect the information, and try to keep it current.


bsherman@mthvax.cs.miami.edu | bsherman@pro-exchange | MCI MAIL:BSHERMAN