If you're a cell phone user your provider could be joining a national phone directory for listing cell phone numbers. The list should start up sometime this year. However not every company will offer it. For those who do, they say, they'll make the choice to join up to you.

For many, their cell phone has become more than just an extra phone.

"It's my cell phone, I use it as my home phone," says cell phone user Lindsey Mainey.

Whether it's personal or business, cell phone usage outside the home has stepped up in recent years.

"The cell phone industry estimated that 5 million people use it as their primary form of telecommunication, and they're already paying to have their number listed in the phone book anyway," says Whitney Watson with the Attorney General's office.

A cell phone directory would provide a free alternative, but many customers worry it would turn into a telemarketer's paradise.

"That's the reason I have a cell phone, so I don't have to deal with that," says Mainey.

"I wouldn't want to use the minutes on my cell phone to say 'No, I'm not interested' and hang up anyway," says cell phone user Courtney Smith.

Cell phone providers Sprint, Nextel, and Verizon won't be joining in on the list this year. However, Cingular and T-Mobile haven't ruled it out.

"The priority is customer privacy, but for those customers who do want to be included in a database listing, we would like to be able to give them that opportunity," says Cingular spokesperson Annette Teter.

But if it's more important to you to keep your number to yourself, be sure to pay attention to the information that comes with your bill.

"We would make certain it would be very clear to customers, because they would have to proactively say 'I want to be on the list' or 'I don't want to be'," says Teter.

The Attorney General's office also emphasized if you do sign up you can be protected from telemarketers through the national no call list.
There's still no date set on when that directory will be launched.