When I received my latest telephone directory I remarked about its size, or lack of size. I teach a class on Skip tracing and public sleuthing and noticed that finding telephone numbers is getting more difficult. Yesterday I read the preliminary National Health Interview Survey from the National Center for Health Statistics, which indicates that by the end of 2007, nearly one out of every six US homes had only a cell phone. In addition, even in those homes that had both landlines and cell phones, one out of eight received most calls via cell phone.

This switch from landlines to cell phones will continue to accelerate, and as it does it makes finding a telephone number for an individual a challenge. Thus far, there is no cell phone directory, and a big push not to publish one. Some public record information providers claim they can find these cell phone numbers for you, but this will not work well until most people use only their cell phone number when registering for services.