There are several reasons why you might want to find out who owns a telephone number. Maybe you found a number on you caller identification that you don’t recognize, maybe you’re getting nuisance calls, and want to track down the source, and in most cases, maybe you found a number on your partner’s phone, and are getting a bit suspicious of who called!
So, how do you go about finding out who owns the number?

First off, as a long shot, just type the number into Google and hit search - you never know, you might get lucky, especially if it’s from a business number, or if the caller has put their phone number on a website somewhere.

Your next stop should be a free reverse phone number directory. There are several available on the internet such as whitepages.com or whowhere.com - just do a search. Once you’ve found a suitable site, enter the entire number including the area code and hit “Search”. If the number is a published land line, you should get the information you want, including the name of the owner and the entire address of the owner.

Sometimes this can be enough to get results, and you don’t need to go any further. However, in most cases, you’ll need to try a slightly different approach.

Quite often you will be unsuccessful because the number belongs to a mobile phone. There’s no central database of cell phone numbers, so most free reverse phone lookup sites can’t return information about such numbers. In addition, if the number is a land line, but is unlisted or non-published, you won’t be able to get the info you need either.

There’s little point trying lots of different phone number lookup websites in order to find who owns a Telephone Number, either. Generally they all use the same databases, so if you don’t find the number at one, then you’re very unlikely to find it anywhere else. Ultimately, if you really need the number, you’ll probably have to use a paid site, but it’s not always easy to know which one to choose. That’s where a Reverse Phone Lookup Review site can help.

Mao, Jessica. (2008, March 11). Sprint White Page Or Sprint Cell Phone Directory, Does It Exist?. EzineArticles. Retrieved March 15, 2008, from http://ezinearticles.com/?Sprint-White-Page-Or-Sprint-Cell-Phone-Directory,-Does-It-Exist?&id=1033540

In this article, the author explained the current cell phone directory structure and the laws on mobile phone directory, the author further explored all ways on how to make Sprint reverse cell and Sprint Reverse Phone Number Search.

Controversial service made 90 million mobile numbers available online.

Intelius - a company that boasted of creating an online directory of 90 million mobile telephone numbers, and drew fire from cell phone users and privacy advocates for it, said  it has stopped the service “in response to consumer feedback.”

Intelius Inc. made the announcement two days after a story about its controversial cell phone directory appeared on msnbc.com, and three days after a leading wireless phone company threatened to sue the Bellevue, Wash.-based firm.

“As a company, we have strived to be at the forefront of innovation,” said Liz Murray, the company抯 communications manager, in a press release.

“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抰 ready. It抯 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.”

Verizon Wireless wasn抰 a customer, but earlier this week called on Intelius to “halt the mining and sale of these numbers.”

“Stop it,” said Steve Zipperstein, vice president and general counsel of Verizon Wireless, in a statement. “This is a violation of Americans?privacy. People expect their cell phone numbers to remain private.”

He said the company was considering litigation against Intelius in order to protect customers’ numbers and privacy.

Ben Popken, editor of The Consumerist Web site, said “people were pretty freaked out” when they heard about the directory.

“They weren抰 surprised that a company would do this, but they were shocked to hear it was actually happening,” he said.

Murray, in response to questions from msnbc.com yesterday, said Intelius?use of the cell phone directory was based on the trend of consumers “transitioning away from land lines en masse.”

“We believed consumers would need many of the same tools widely available to landline users, such as a cell-based, white pages service (our directory) to keep them connected and enable their friends, colleagues and classmates to be able to keep in touch with them in an increasingly transient society,” she said.

She declined to further explain her statement that “the market is not ready” for such a directory, citing the quiet period the company is in leading up to an initial public offering.

Joseph Ridout, consumer services manager of the advocacy group Consumer Action, said it was a “relief” to hear that Intelius “has put the brakes on one of their anti-privacy initiatives.”

However, he added, “There are still other ways in which this company is unresponsive to consumer needs. For example, in order to opt out of its data collection scheme, there’s still a ludicrous array of hoops one must jump through in order to do so.

“Although it is an Internet-based business that would allow for opt-outs very easily through electronic means where possible, Intelius requires one to make copies of one’s driver’s license, and mail or fax it to the company in order to opt out.”

Murray said Intelius has not heard any customer concern about its opt-out procedure.

“As good custodians of information, we have an obligation to ensure people are opting out their own information, thus the request for a copy of a form of ID,” she said.

Intelius describes itself as a pioneer in the “information commerce industry,” and provides an array of fee-based services, including background checks and identity theft monitoring.

Last summer, in a press release, the company unveiled plans to “enhance” its phone directory to include cell phone numbers, making it “one of the first companies” to include cell phone numbers.”

Intelius claimed it had about half the mobile phones in the country in its database, and charged $14.95 for each number that was searched.

The cell phone database has been live for a few months, but its privacy implications became high profile recently when the company filed for a $144 million initial public offering.

In its filing, the company noted that it was able to get around laws that bar telephone companies from compiling cell phone directories without users?consent because the laws did not mention third parties, such as Intelius.

The company also said yesterday it continues to offer its reverse search, Cell Phone Caller ID service.

“That doesn抰 seem to present as glaring a problem as compiling lists of more than 90 million Americans?cell phone numbers without subscriber consent or knowledge,” said Ridout.

Original Post
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22956815

Editor’s Note: Welcome to Yay or Nay, a feature for RCR Wireless News’ new weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week we’ll review a new wireless application or service from the user’s point of view, with the goal of highlighting what works and what doesn’t in the mobile content industry. If you wish to submit your application or service for review, please contact us at rcrwebhelp@crain.com.Service: Intelius Inc.’s cellphone lookup service

Running on: Desktop computer

Yay: Interesting concept, other than that whole creepy vibe of someone being able to look up your cellphone number.

Nay: The company doesn’t say upfront that its searches require 24-72 hours for their “search specialists” to complete—and more than half my searches weren’t completed 10 days later.

We say: On first learning of this service, my initial reaction was, “Isn’t this an e-mail hoax that I get every few months? Nobody really has access to my cellphone number, right?”

Bellevue, Wash.-based Intelius Inc. recently announced that its Web-based number look-up tool can find both wireline and wireless numbers. Right on its home page in bright, red letters, it claims to include wireless in its searches, along with unlisted, unpublished, residential, business and Internet numbers.

So, to test the service, I entered my cellphone number into the search field. The Intelius system replied that the number was for a landline phone, and that a name for the owner of the number was available. I went ahead with the order.

But before I was able to complete the order, Intelius offered me a “premium confirmation service” for another $5, which “confirms phone connections and current addresses in this report against public utilities.” The system also popped up another offer for an “e-mail phone report” for $1.50. I declined both.

Then, things got shadier. Instead of the results screen I was expecting, up popped a page thanking me for my successful order and offering me a chance to take a three-question survey to get signed up for some odd mish-mash of credit monitoring, roadside assistance and discounts on gift cards from AceHardware and Sears for $15 a month after a 7-day free trial period.

Yeah, no thanks.

I finally completed the order, and was informed that the search will take 24-72 hours to complete. Unfortunately, after 10 days I still had not received any results on the search.

In order to test the system, I also conducted a few more searches, including a search for the wireless number for presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Not likely to be a commonly duplicated name, I figured.

And to my surprise, Intelius said it not only had 17 results for phone lines for Barack Obama, the first two results were a Nextel line and a Verizon Wireless line, both based out of Cook County, Ill.—which makes complete sense for the senator from Illinois. I took Intelius up on its offer to check out all the numbers for $15.

Unfortunately, when my results turned up several days later, neither of the wireless numbers were accurate. The Nextel line was correctly identified as such, but the friendly man who answered it informed me that the phone was actually a Cook County jail number—to an undercover narcotics phone, nonetheless.

“Somebody gave you some wrong information,” he told me kindly when I explained what I was up to.

I got the voicemail of a pleasant-sounding young woman named Rebecca when I called the Verizon number that was provided. Strike two, Intelius.

I tried five searches for cellphone numbers, total—three for information that I already knew, as a way to test the service, as well as for Barack Obama and—just for fun—Verizon Communications President and COO Denny Strigl. The number Intelius returned for Strigl was based in Atlanta, Ga., and went straight to a fast busy signal every time I tried it.

Searches for the remaining three—the three that I already knew—had not been fulfilled at all after 10 days.

All in all, Intelius’ wireless number lookup returned disappointing results. But at least I feel reassured that no one will be able to access my cellphone number unless I give it to them.

Does T-Mobile has a Cellular Phone Directory? Does T-Mobile has a  White Page? Is it possible to lookup a T-Mobile cell phone number? Based on the reading from T-Mobile Phone Lookup Review,  the answer is Yes and No.

Congress has just drafted a bill to ban any kind of mobile phone directories. At this moment, T-Mobile doesn’t have a cellular phone directory, if you are serious to trace a  T-mobile caller, you can get a basic check at Cell Phone Reverse Lookup Drectories ,   you can even get ton of private information at  the “backdoor” cell phone directories.

But these directories won’t stay long when a new bill becomes law which ban all cell phone directories. Congress tackled the issue of cell phone directories several years ago, but after a brief attempt by the wireless industry (minus Verizon) to create a collective directory of its own, plans for the project were abandoned. With the arrival of Intelius’ cell phone directory last year, however, Congress resurrected the issue in December with a bill (S. 2454) that would ban the creation of a mobile directory. The measure is currently before the Senate Commerce Committee.

Update: Intelius has just shut down its reverse cell phone lookup service.

 Read more from from T-Mobile Phone Lookup ……………….