411 Directory Assistance

The very first words that spring in to your mind when you say 411, is Directory Assistance. 4-1-1 were the numbers used in USA and Canada for this purpose. Basically you could dial 411 and give somebody’s name and ask for their telephone number. Before the early 1980s, in most states, 411 calls used to be free.
Yes, unfortunately these telephone calls are not free of charge any more. You have to pay on average USD 1.25 in the USA and CAD 0.50 in Canada. 411 directory assistance (aka ‘DA’) service existed for decades before the 1980s. It is estimated that approximately 6 billion 411 calls are being made annually within the United States alone.

Although 411 directory assistance was originally meant for land phone lines (hey! there were no mobile phones in the pre 1990 era) and attempts were made to build a National Cell Phone Directory, that didn’t work out properly. In other words, 411, predominantly remains a service to lookup for land phone lines. 4-1-1 directory assistance can be broken down to three categories:

   1. 411 Local Directory Assistance (LDA). Say you’re in California, you call the operator and ask for a local number in California itself.
   2. 411 National Directory Assistance (NDA). This is when you happen to be in California and you request the operator to search for a phone number in New York, for example. This call costs more than the LDA 411 call.
   3. 411 National Directory Assistance. Another type of an NDA, however, in this case you not only request a number from a different state, but you are also asking for a telephone number from a different carrier than yours. These are the most expensive types of 411 calls.

According to www.blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060825-005102, in the year 2006, between March 31 and June 7, a study was conducted by the company Tellme, which is an automated voice services provider and directory assistance (411) wholesaler company. They used Harris Interactive to survey 1,425 adult Americans about their usage of directory assistance services.

One unsurprising finding was that, the majority of people (55%) surveyed and called 411 did so using a mobile phone. Who uses land phones now adays ha? If there was a 411 texting service, people would have probably texted instead of calling! That number was 63% for 18 to 28 year olds meaning that this age group used cell phones even more than the average american. Only 26% of the people used 411 DA frequently from home.

One of the most interesting findings that came from this survey was the purpose people used the 411 service for. People used directory assistance mostly to find out local information such as:

• Restaurants & Bars: 43%
• Retail Stores: 36%
• Hotels/Lodging: 24%
• Movie Theaters, Amusement & Recreation: 20%
• Transportation: Taxis & Airlines: 10%

In conclusion, 411 directory is not something that you can use for finding unlisted phone numbers free of charge. Seems like you can’t avoid using a reverse lookup phone number service
 

Tagged as: 411 Directory, 411 USA, 411 usa directory, 4aa usa phone directory, Reverse 411, unlisted 411 numbers