411, Reverse 411 Services For India???

I keep getting calls from telemarketers, unknown persons, SMSes from many unknown people and organizations. I always wondered how did these guys get hold of my mobile and/or landline phone number!!!

Also, by my past experiences, I wanted to trace who these rouge callers were and what their intentions were exactly.

This led me to explore a service similar to 411 service in USA. The definition in Wikipedia is filed under Reverse telephone directory.

I just googled out for 411 services and this led me to several websites including http://www.411.com/ where there is a tab under the name Reverse Phone. You just need to enter the phone number to get atleast the basic details of the person calling for gratis.

Hmm, I thought this service would have been implemented already in India. But, alas, I could only find very few websites helping umpteen number of mobile users, poor hapless ones - like young people in classes, aged persons in important situations. Think of the situation where someone is taking an exam and you receive a call from an unknown number and that too from pre-recorded IVRs.

Example sites include - http://www.india-cellular.com/mobile-number-locator.aspx, etc.

Also, there is a "Do Not Call" registry started in India , http://ndncregistry.gov.in/ndncregistry/index.jsp which probably is helping stop these junk calls.

But, with the proliferation of VoIP phones and VoIP service providers across the world, we have to keep updating ourselves about various options available to keep ourselves away from these unnecessary calls.

Although VoIP is an incredible technology and provides two square meals a day for people like me, we need to keep up with the "cons" and be happy with the "pros" of these latest technologies.