Have you ever had this happen to you? You meet someone, know their name, but for whatever reason you didn't get their mobile phone number. You know they have a cell phone because they showed it to you but when you try to look them up using a phone book or online "Yellow Pages" their name is no where to be found. And there you are asking "how can I find someone's cell phone number?"

As you have found out, if you did what was said above, there is no phone book of cellular numbers. Because of various federal regulations concerning privacy all cell phone numbers are unlisted to prevent data mining by telemarketers and their ilk. While this keeps cell phone spam to a minimum it makes it increasingly hard to lookup someone's cell phone number.

So what do you do when you are faced with this problem? Fortunately there are several options available to you when it comes to looking up mobile phone numbers.

Your first two options won't cost you anything other then some time, patience, and a less ideal return on those two things. In other words free doesn't necessarily translate into a high success rate. On the other hand it doesn't hurt to try because you just never know when you'll get lucky.

The quickest of the free cell phone number search methods is to "Google" the person. It really can be that simple if they have happened to leave some personal information about themselves on a website somewhere. Social networking sites such as MySpace, online classified ad sites, and message boards are the most likely spots to return someone's name, address, and phone number.

Your second choice when it comes to free cell phone number searches is using one of the no cost cellular directories that can be found on the internet. There is a catch to using one of these free sites. In order to join you will have to help them populate their name and number database by entering your own cell phone information into it before they will allow you access. This method is slowly gaining the acceptance of cell phone users but these databases are far from complete.

In most cases the best way to find that unknown cell phone number is through a national registry of cellular numbers. These websites do charge a small membership fee but it can be well worth the cost in time savings alone. You will also get you unlimited searches for the lifetime of your membership and if you have a web enabled phone you can access the site from your phone. It's like having a portable phone book where ever you go.

So the next time you are wondering "how can I find someone's cell phone number", here are three ways which should be able to help you. Just remember there are over a billion cell numbers out there and the method you choose will have a direct bearing on how successful you are.

To learn more about national cell phone registries and how to lookup someone's cell phone number please click here.