Have you ever tried to lookup a phone number to find out who the owner is but discovered that the number is private and you could not find out the person’s identity? In many cases, when a private number is looked up it turns out that it is related to a cell phone. However, not all private numbers that are not published in phone directories belong to cell phones. Some of these numbers are the property of landline phones that are unlisted or unpublished.
Are unlisted and unpublished numbers the same? No, there is a slight difference between the two. The following is a brief description of each type:
Unlisted phone number – An unlisted number referrers to any telephone number that does not appear in a directory, or in any other listing. Phone consumers with these numbers have made the request to their phone company to have their number withdrawn from public view. A phone user is required to pay a small monthly fee to have their number unlisted. However, most people who sign up for this service feel it is worth the monthly charge as it helps them to have more phone privacy and security. Therefore, they receive less telemarketing and other unwanted calls.
Unpublished phone numbers – An unpublished number is one that has not yet been published within a directory. Thus, it has nothing to do with the phone consumer requesting their number not to be published. These numbers have simply not appeared in the directory due to the fact that these numbers may have been created or distributed after the directory was published. Therefore, while they may not have made that particular issue, they will be published in the next one when it is developed at a later time.
Hence, if you have found that your number is not listed within your local phone directory, but you have not made the request to your phone company to have it unlisted, your number is simply unpublished and will appear in the next issue.
Finally, remember that even though a person’s number may not be published or listed, you can still lookup information on the phone user with a reverse phone lookup [http://www.freecellphonelookups.com/article.html] search. You’ll simply be required to pay a minimal fee in order for the search to return any useful information.