February 01, 2008 09:00 ET

Intelius Listens to Customers; Pulls the Plug on Cell Phone Directory Service

Company's Popular Cell Phone Caller ID Service Still Allows Customers to Identity Unrecognized Numbers for Personal Safety

BELLEVUE, WA--(Marketwire - February 1, 2008) - In response to consumer feedback, Intelius Inc., a company that empowers consumers and businesses with information for intelligent decisions, today announced that it has discontinued its cell phone directory service. Intelius launched the cell phone directory in recent months as a test for the first-of-its-kind resource.

"As a company, we have strived to be at the forefront of innovation," said Liz Murray, Communications Manager at Intelius. "We realize that in this instance we may have been ahead of our time. Wireless carriers attempted to develop a similar product a few years ago and found the market wasn't ready; it's clear that the market is still not ready. We always listen carefully to our customers, which is why we recently discontinued our cell phone directory."

In keeping with the company's mission to empower consumers with information services for personal and family safety, Intelius continues to offer a Cell Phone Caller ID service (reverse search). This service works much like the caller ID consumers are familiar with on their home phones. Cell Phone Caller ID allows a customer to input a number that has shown up on their home or cell phone into the Intelius site and receive basic information associated with that number. Consumers can use this service to protect themselves from harassing calls, hang-ups, pranks, or mystery calls into their children or other family members.

"We believe that consumers have a right to know who's calling them. Our Cell Phone Caller ID service is a natural extension of our personal safety and information services, and we believe it is a critical tool to prevent the creation of a safe-harbor for harassers, predators, telemarketers and pranksters," Murray explains. "We are firmly committed to providing them positive, proactive ways to help them protect their personal safety and obtain peace of mind."