ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the association of unlisted number subscription with what presumably are household characteristics—race, housing type, home ownership, and urbanity. The nature and use of the telecommunications network itself, especially the perceived intrusiveness and increased ubiquity of telecommunications services, may have caused the dramatic increase in unlisted numbers. In addition, new telecommunications technologies, especially those that transmit originating numbers for identification or service delivery purposes, may be hobbled by concern about use and dissemination of unlisted numbers. Unlisted service subscription varies directly with population density. In predicting the likelihood of subscribing to unlisted services, being black is the most powerful demographic predictor. Beyond privacy protection, generally unlisted number services are used to deal with problem phone calls. Thus, while unlisted service could reduce such calls, to the extent that telemarketers use random digit dialing it could not eliminate them.
