There are over hundreds of millions of wireless subscribers in the United States and doing a reverse lookup for cell phone numbers can only be done one way. The only way to get the name of who is calling you from a wireless phone is to use a reverse lookup directory that specializes in wireless numbers.
In 2007, the issue of publicizing a free directory of wireless phone numbers and the names tied to those numbers drove lobbyists concerned with consumer privacy Algeria mobile number list to enact laws that made wireless carriers require a consumer opt-in to have their number included in such a directory. With the lack of support of the wireless carriers and pressure from consumers not to publish this information, the project fell by the wayside.
Therefore, no free listing of wireless phone numbers has ever been created. However, there’s a loophole in the law that allows third parties to get this information through backdoor methods and publish it in directories that offer reverse lookup for cell phone numbers.
The law does not stop a third party from acquiring this information – the law was only specific as to how wireless service providers would build such a directory. There are now several online non-wireless carrier companies that offer a reverse lookup for cell phone numbers and they obtained this information through a number of methods:
Buying marketing lists that include consumer wireless phone information
Building social opt-in sites that allow consumer to enter their cell phone numbers for publication and social networking
Scouring public records information for wireless phone owner name and address
According to the CTIA, The Wireless Association, as of June 2009, there were over 276 million wireless subscribers and 20% of those subscribers had no land line phone. That’s a 42% increase in subscribers since 2005 and 162% increase in the number of subscribers who are going solo and giving up on having both a cell phone and a land line phone.
As the number of people using a cell phone number as their single point of contact continues to grow, more and more of this information will be readily available to these 3rd parties. The top reverse lookup directories for cell phone numbers already claim to have information on nearly every wireless subscriber in the United States.
It costs a lot of money for these directories to gather this information. Buying lists, data mining billions of public records, and building websites is not cheap so they recoup their expenses by charging consumers a fee for a reverse lookup for cell phone numbers. However, so many people are interested in this information that they are able to keep the cost for a report very low – usually around $15.
That’s why using a reverse lookup for cell phone numbers from a specialized directory is the only way to get the name of who is calling you if the call is coming from a wireless number.
