Have you ever tried to look up a phone number to find out who owns it, but found that the number is private and couldn’t figure out the person’s identity? In many cases, when a private number is searched, it turns out that it is related to a cell phone. However, not all private numbers that are not published in telephone directories belong to cell phones. Some of these numbers are owned by landlines that are unlisted or unpublished.

Are unlisted and unpublished numbers the same?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 Telephone Number: An unlisted number refers to any telephone number that does not appear in a directory or any other listing. Consumers of phones with these numbers have petitioned their phone company to remove their number from public view. A phone user is required to pay a small monthly fee to have their number unlisted. However, most of the people who subscribe to this service feel that it is worth the monthly charge, since it helps them to have more privacy and security on the phone. Therefore, they receive fewer telemarketing calls and other unwanted calls.

Unpublished phone numbers: An unpublished number is one that has not yet been published in a directory. Therefore, it has nothing to do with the telephone consumer requesting that his number not be published. These numbers simply have not appeared in the directory due to the fact that these numbers may have been created or distributed after the directory was published. So while they may not have made that particular issue, they’ll post on the next one when it’s developed at a later time.

So, if you found that your number is not listed in your local phone book, but you didn’t ask your phone company to remove it, your number simply won’t be published and will appear in the next issue.

Finally, remember that even if a person’s number is not published or listed, you can still look up information about the phone user with a reverse phone lookup. [http://www.freecellphonelookups.com/article.html] search. You just have to pay a minimal fee for the search to return useful information.