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The Reverse
Phone Lookup Web Directory is an online resource for reverse phone lookup
information. Whether you need to find out the owner of a landline,
cell phone, or an unlisted number, reverse phone lookup services provide
the solution. What exactly is a Reverse Phone Lookup? Unlike
a standard phone directory which uses a person's name to locate a phone
number, reverse phone lookup services use only a telephone number to
retrieve the owner's name and/or address. These details may be collected
from a variety of sources including cell phone subscriber lists, private
directories, and government databases.
For land-line phone
numbers, services such as Anywho provide basic reverse phone lookup
services. Unfortunately, many phone numbers are missing from these free
directories. There are various reasons for numbers to be missing. Some
people specifically request that their phone numbers remain unlisted
for privacy reasons. In other cases, phone numbers are not listed because
of the type of phone service used. For example, phone numbers associated
with Vonage or other digital phone services are rarely shared with public
directories. This is also true of phone numbers from Skype, GrandCentral,
and other emerging telecommunication services.
However, the vast
majority of unlisted personal telephone numbers are from cell phones.
As the cell phone become more commonplace, standard caller ID is becoming
obsolete. Cellular carriers such as Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Cingular
do not make their members' phone numbers available to central Caller
ID systems, so it is impossible to trace cell phone numbers without
special reverse cell lookup services.
According
to our surveys, RLookup offers the best value
for reverse phone lookups of cell phones and unlisted numbers. We were
most impressed by their recognition of hard-to-trace cell phone numbers
and unlisted numbers that aren't found with other services. However,
there are a variety of choices available for reverse phone lookup services.
In choosing a service, it is important to exercise caution, because
the reliability varies significantly between services.
The following reviews
are based on our survey study with over 500 respondents, combined with
our research panel’s own first hand testing of each service. If
you have used any of the services below, please contact us at info@mrat.net,
and we will factor your feedback into our ongoing reviews.
