India doesn't have especially good online directories for finding landline or mobile phone numbers.
While there is some discussion around improving the scope and availability of directory enquiry sources, existing resources remain fairly limited.
The problem is worse outside the country since you can't call live into operator-assisted directory enquiry services that many of the companies provide to their customers.
As a result, you may find yourself working harder than you'd like to find the India phone number you need. One trick is to try using the Yellow Pages - possibly the person you are calling is listed as a contact for their company?
Below is a recap of the resources that do exist. As you'll see, with residential listings, the offerings are limited to the online directories of the state-owned companies BSNL and MTNL. The BSNL and MTNL directories also include business listings. Online Yellow Pages are also a good way to find business listings.
India Online Telephone Directories
-- Landline Numbers
As mentioned, India has pretty terrible online phone directory resources - and those that exist, as shown below, include only the customers of the company that's publishing the directory.
There is no comprehensive listing of all landline phone numbers that we are aware of - and we've looked pretty hard.
BSNL Online Telephone Directories
BSNL, which is the largest landline company in India, publishes online directories for all of its territories. Links to directories for the largest cities and states they serve are provided below. The directories include listings only it's own customers. Customers of other landline companies are not included.
The directories allow searching by name, address, or phone number (reverse lookup). You can search for both business listings and residential listings. In some regions, the directories get pretty fine grained, so it helps to know just what it is you are looking for.
Main directory link: BSNL online telephone directories
Major cities
By state
The above list is only a partial list of all available online directories from BSNL. Click here for a complete list of BSNL directories, including Haryana, Chhattisgorh, and the National Capital Territory (NCT), among other states.
MTNL Online Telephone Directories
Here are links to the online directories for the two major cities MTNL serves. Note these cover MTNL landline listings only.
The directories allow searching by name, address, or phone number (reverse lookup). You can search for both business listings and residential listings. In some regions, the directories get pretty fine grained, so it helps to know just what it is you are looking for.
Main directory link: MTNL online telephone directories
By city
Directories for Other Landline Providers
At this time, we are not aware of any other phone company that provides easy access to online directories.
In other words, as far as we know, the following landline companies do not have online directories:
No guarantees, but if you are looking for a phone number from one of these carriers specifically, you may be able to find a customer service representative who can assist with a directory enquiry. We haven't had much luck with doing that - especially via email - but you might get lucky.
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If you are looking for a phone number from a specific carrier, check here for information on which phone numbers have been assigned to which Indian phone company. If you are in-country, you may be able to contact the phone company directly for assistance.
If you are trying to do a reverse phone number lookup, please be advised that all BSNL / MTNL phone numbers start with a '2' and you may be able to find the subscriber (customer) using the BSNL / MTNL directories listed above. If your number does not start with a '2', then these directories will not be helpful - and there aren't any other promising options.
On a positive note, there is discussion on-going to create an integrated, country-wide online directory of all landline numbers. The directory would cover all carriers, too. But it's a work in progress and won't be available anytime soon.
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India Online Telephone Directories
-- Mobile Numbers
If you thought directory enquiry resources for landlines were bad, well...they are even worse for India mobile phones. In fact, to our knowledge, there are no online directories for mobile phones published by any carrier for any region of the country.
In some cases, the carriers offer a limited dial-in directory enquiry service for their existing customers, but these are not readily accessible to non-customers, especially ones outside the country.
As well, there are a few unofficial efforts to collect and organize mobile numbers, but these don't seem to work too well, so we hesitate to even list them.
As discussed in this Business Line article, there is some effort being put into creating an integrated national directory enquiry service, the NIDQS project, which will include mobile numbers as well as landline, but this won't do you any good at the moment.
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India Online Yellow Pages
In contrast to the paucity of White Pages directories, India does have pretty good online Yellow Pages directories. Through these sites, you can find most any type of business anywhere in the country.
Below you'll find links to a few of the very best Yellow Pages sites we've found. There are many, many more, but most of them stink.
- JustDial.com - JustDial is set up like a search engine, but has listings by business categories, too. Covers all major cities.
- Infomedia Yellow Pages - Looks more like a traditional Yellow Pages site, complete with 'fingers' logo. Covers more than 20 major cities.
- Indian Yellow Pages - The Indian Yellow Pages is more of a business-to-business (B2B) directory than a consumer-oriented Yellow Pages. It is not organized by city.
- Sulekha.com Yellow Pages - Nicely designed and well organized Yellow Pages directory. Covers all major cities.
- WebIndia123.com Yellow Pages - A few too many things flashing for our taste, but site has reasonably good coverage.
Note: there are several 'Yellow Pages' sites which are basically repackaged version of Google India. Instead of using those, we'd advise going straight Google India. It does a much better job with less clutter - and is available in multiple languages, including English, Hindi, and Bengali, among other widely spoken Indian languages.
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Directories for Major Cities
For additional online directory information for India's largest cities, please visit these pages on our sister sites:
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