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Phone Numbers Go Locationless
flipper65 writes "Well, it looks like one of the last bastions of the regional Bells is under attack. Now your VoIP provider can give you their own area code and exchange. With the proliferation of broadband and voice services, your land line is now as mobile as your cell phone, and cheaper. Look for this to turn in to a battle royal. The regional bells will not go quietly into that good night."
I don't care, I'm deaf !
...what the phone companies are going to try and do about this? I can see them charging long distance to people with the VoIP area codes.
I'll Find You Peer, If It's The Last Thing I Do!!!!
I subscribe to VoIP and love it. I go on a trip for the weekend (out of the country). I can take my home phone with me.
I'm not so sure this is a good thing. In any case, it's truly the end of an era. So long, farewell.
Now when you get that phone call shouting "FP!" you'll never really know where it came from.
Welcome to caller-id hell.
With a vengeance, too. I doubt AT&T in its heyday was less scrupulous than these guys. Next thing you know they'll be charging us for long distance Internet.
(It's never too late to join the Renaissance)
Can they give me my own country code? I'm from Australia...
http://melbournephilosophy.com/
Here in Yurp, in most countries mobiles have their own area codes (07xxx here in the UK). This means telcos can and do charge for calls to them at a different (higher) rate than traditional landline calls. However, this means the mobile user doesn't pay to receive the call as they do in the USA, where the other operators can't tell from the number alone that the call is going to a cellphone.
Presumably if the US cell operators are savvy they'll be able to offer "no incoming call charge" service plans for people using these new numbering schemes.
I always thought it was a bit bizarre of the US telcos to give geographical numbers to mobile phones.
Of course they won't go quietly, but the competition will benefit the consumer with lower prices and more features. There was something to be said for the stability of old Ma Bell, but I think most people would agree they like having the choices and competition that have come with deregulation.
This is just the next step and let's hope it just keeps getting better!
As much as I hate those fucking greedy pigs that are phone companies, I was rather hoping that one day I would have my own company raking in the cash :\ I suppose I will have to go into running sweatshops to sell £80 trainers in pretentious stores..
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
We've had that since 2003 here in Germany...
The GermanRegTP stopped that arround 3 months ago.
The phonecompanies have been building up to this for the past 15 years or more, making areacodes mandatory even then.
Remember, there are no stupid questions. But there are a lot of inquisitive idiots.
I think that this will self-regulate itself very nicely.
Here's why: I have friends who already live in my area code, yet use cell phones with numbers from out of state. If I call them on my landline, I incur long distance charges. They know this, and they don't really like it. It's tough to order a pizza from an out-of-state cellphone. Pizza shops don't like it.
I use my cellphone more and more to avoid long distance, and I have really no interest in VoIP although I've been a courtesy customer, trialing VoIP for almost 18 months. I don't want to have a different area code than my neighborhood.
There are a lot of things that won't be very pretty. 911 service will be the one that the phone company will complain about.
People are used to area codes and exchanges being located in certain areas. Moving... well, it'll make the numbers less important. And wrong numbers could get to be VERY expensive.
The saddest part is that most legislators aren't bright enough to figure any of this out for themselves. They'll go with whoever sends them campaign money. They'll say that they're looking into it, but really, they'll just vote by whichever lobbyist gets them the most money.
-- No sig for you!
"I moved to Kansas from Texas, but I still want to keep my Dallas area code! I want SBC to have to transfer my POTS phone number to my new address!"
For VoIP providers, this is a relatively easy task - they just assign the inbound number to an account/IP address. For POTS providers, this is a bit more complex, as the routing tables on the Class 5 switches (using SS7) aren't set up like DNS is for the internet...
I believe the FCC has (had?) a rule that prevents assigning specific area codes to any "type" of technology. I think this rule was put into place when FAX machines were first put into widespread use. I would assume the logic behind it was to prevent the phone companies from assigning specific charges to specific types of technology.
I believe one of the only wireless-only area codes is 917 in NYC.
Of course, I think my info is a few years old and I thought that I remembered reading that the FCC was gonna change its policy a few years ago. I don't ever remember if that happened though.
With the 3G and 4G plans at Cingular and the parent company SBC you will use them for all your needs. Via UMTS you will have 100mb+ wireless data connections. This is currently only in 4 markets and it will take a year before more markets are included because of the mergers. It is the main reason for all the SBC/ATT mergers. SBC is planning on providing VOIP for your Cell phone. Stick with us we are leading the way in technology. Cingular is on the GSM model ... find out more on the http://www.gsmworld.com website.
Also if you get a chance see who is running the "Americas" GSM migration plan.
T-Mobil also uses GSM but they are far behind Cingular. Verison Sprint and Nextel all use proprietary protocols not GSM Open Standards.
SBC is one of the original Baby Bells, and used to be named Southwestern Bell Company. They changed it to SBC Communications Inc. and had an ad campaign about it not too long ago.
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
You mean have the companies who cry for deregulation (as free enterprise) might have to compete in a free enterprise market.
Imagine a day when the phone company (any phone company) actually has decent service, actually helps you when you call instead of telling you to call another number, actually quits trying to bleed you for every possible cent.
----- If communism is a system where the government owns business, what do you call a system where business owns govern
Yes, but the mobile service providers are still nationally based. If I want to call a mobile in another European country, I still have to add the international prefix.
On fixed line, you can move your NY number to LA but you can't move your London number to Berlin.
While I saw no reason to pick a out of state area code, I do find it nice to have a "local" number others can call in all major cities across the country. Most people can call me for free what way.
E911 isn't run (here at least) by the telco. My VoIP provider does know where I actually live, and can route the call accordingly, doesn't matter what area code number I chose.
As for wrong numbers expensive - the most I pay for a minute of long distance is 1.9 cents. I can't see that get expensive anytime.
///<sig
Nextel has offered free incoming call plans for many years.
Evolution or ID?
I was in Chicago in 2000 and though the train system ws good and you had more fast food options, mobile phone uses was way behind. Back in Ireland, my little sister (aged 13 at the time) had a mobile phone, while our relatively affluent American cousins had 1 mobile for the family ( a fairly arcane looking mobile too). Nokia (finland), Siemens (Germany), and Ericson (Sweden) - all big European mobile makers at the time - seemed to have much better market penetration. Ireland has always had "the gift of the gab" do I suppose it always seemed that awy. Maybe it was just Irish people blabbering on about nothing!! I f****** hate mobiles. I get on a bus to go to work and see muppets everywhere exchanging illogical trivialities in my face. It's like being pissed on.
In the U.S. about all operators now offer unlimited free weekend and night minutes, plus free mobile-to-mobile minutes (providing both are on same carrier). THe bucket of "peak" minutes is so large that effectively all airtime is pretty darn cheap now. Competition has driven down the per minute costs.
Also, since incoming and outgoing SMS messages are also charged, it allows more varied service offerings, like you can email an SMS message to the phone for no cost. In other countries, expensive SMS gateways are needed to ensure who sends the message pays the toll. That allows me to set up my hosts to SMS page me when there's a problem without need to hire an SMS gateway service to provide the transport and billing charges. Since like 1,000 text messages can be had for $5.00 -- who the hell cares if I get charged for incoming?
Hi! Just to say that. Today, in El navegante (a blog section of the spanish newspaper "el mundo"), there is this new about the spanish CMT ("Comision del Mercado de las Telecomunicaciones"), which is -more or less- the spanish FCC, had drop out a kind of a recomendation sheet on the IpVoice in spain, and it's point is the same. give 'phone numbers' for IpVoice users. have fun.
Well, it started out as a VoIP/landline thing, and now you're adding mobile phones in the picture, and from different countries. I think you can expect some differences... Here it makes sense to have area codes. As for receiving the call, it doesn't matter one bit who calls you or what area codes, it always costs airtime on a cell phone (unless you have a "big" plan). And these new "numbering schemes" have nothing to do with cell phones. In fact, it's hardly a new scheme, it's just people with VoIP lines being able to choose their "home" area code, as if it was a landline in some other city. It has nothing to do with mobile phones whatsoever. As for giving area codes to them, you have to give them one, and it might as well be a local one if you don't want to pay LD and be a LD call to everyone.
So, have they solved the issue of calling emergency numbers (911 etc.) and rerouting the call in order to get "local" help?
When dialing a cellphone that is abroad and using roaming, the caller still pays the usual (local) tariff since he cannot know that the callee is abroad. The callee has to pay the extra charges for the international traffic, since he (presumeably) knows what those extra charges are going to be if he picks up the phone.
Okay... I'll do the stupid things first, then you shy people follow.
[Zappa]
Wrong.
The person calling (and paying) typically has the choise between multiple different providers. He chooses one of them as the "default" and accesses any of the other ones by using a prefix.
So, for example I use 01013 as a default prefix, which means that if I pick up the phone and dial a mobile phone I'll pay what they charge pro minute. Mostly I'll manually dial 01071+number when dialing a mobile phone since they're cheaper on that though.
I don't have to do this manually, there's "least cost routers" available that you install between the phone and the landline that will automatically dial the prefix that is cheapest for the number you want to reach.
Whats the point though? The great part about voip is that you can get area codes that masquerade as normal telephones, even if it's not where you live. For example, I moved from then 203 part of Connecticut to the 860 part, and I kept my 203 number for awhile to allow my family to call me as a local call. I eventually switched to an 860 number to allow my neighbors to call me as a local call instead. I could have easily kept both if it would be worth the extra money. If you had some special number, it would likely be a toll call for EVERYONE to call you.
Don't Tread on Me
docsigma2000: jesus christ man ...!!!!!! FUCK FUCK FUCK
docsigma2000: my son is sooooooo dead
c8info: Why?
docsigma2000: hes been looking at internet web sites in fucking EUROPE
docsigma2000: HE IS SURFING LONG DISTANCE
docsigma2000: our fucking phone bill is gonna be nuts
c8info: Ooh, this is bad. Surfing long distance adds an extra $69.99 to your bill per hour.
docsigma2000:
docsigma2000: is there some plan we can sign up for???
docsigma2000: cuz theres some cool stuff in europe, but i dun wanna pauy that much
c8info: Sorry, no. There is no plan. you'll have to live with it.
docsigma2000: o well, i ccan live without europe intenet sites.
docsigma2000: but till i figure out how to block it hes sooooo dead
c8info: By the way, I'm from Europe, your chatting long distance.
** docsigma2000 has quit (Connection reset by peer)
- Bash.org quote #142934
It's becoming more common in Europe to add the international prefix to mobile phone numbers even if you're in the same country. All of my UK numbers are +44nnnnnnnn, as it avoids problems when internationally roaming.
I just don't get this fuzzing around 'area codes'. Area codes are based on the telco structure of an ordinary phone. I mean: you have to interconnect small phone networks from one state to another (or one country to another, and so and so). That's the 'area code' reason. It simply substitutes the 'operator' of the first days.
If you have a glance at any old days movies, you'll see why we have 'area codes':
-riing -"I want to make a call to chicago" -"yes sir, which is the number?" -blabla
the area code simply allows a machine to do that.
The point is. What do you really want when you call someone?? You just want to talk to that 'someone', you don't want to talk to the 'someone's house', so the phone number is just a synonym (a sort of an id number) of that someone's name. The area codes are just 'routing prefixes', useful for the machine that handles the connection.
Now, if you have a cell phone, that is really not necessary. In fact, in Europe it is handled that way. I'm very surprised of reading here about cell phones with 'area codes'...
Anyway, the voIp just wipes out this last frontier between the machinery you need to talk to someone, and what you need to localize him
Area codes are just dinosaurs waiting to die. have fun.
Unless you want to see Prince Harry and Princess Anne fighting in Windsor Palace.
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
~Dylan Thomas
I recently got a 1-888 number in the US for only 42$ per month (http://www.quantumvoice.com) it's unlimited incoming and outgoing (probably some kind of fair use but so far no trouble yet)
And thanks to the 1-888 toll free bit, it doesn't really matter where your number is.
I'm from the Netherlands and I use this to stay in touch with people I know in the US.
Works like a charm
I think the point is that with the US system, mobile call charges will drop below land line charges but that isn't going to happen other places due to the fact that callers have no choice on the rate to a 3rd party mobile phone company. From Australia I can call the US or UK for AU$.05/min as a standard rate. If I call a US cell phone, it only costs me AU$.05/min while if I call a UK mobile phone its going to be at least AU$.20/min if not several times that.
Vonage has been doing this for over 2 years now. I currently have a New York phone number that is located in Florida, and vice versa.
Work and friends call the New York number to save on long distance fees. Florida work and friends call my local area code number. They are both on the same line. I can pick up the Cisco device that is the VOIP and walk out of the house, plug it into any IP network and get either of those phone call there.
London, Ebiza, Florida, New York, Hawaii, Indo, Costa Rica....so far it has worked any time I have pluged it up and have a working IP.
IP knows nothing about area codes......
Neck_of_the_Woods
#/usr/local/surf/glassy/overhead
Oh, you got told!
Heh, I need to lay off the caffeine.
I'm a signature virus. Please copy me to your signature so I can replicate.
During the huge power outage, I realized that a land line with a normal (not cordless phone can be very handy. We had two cordless phones but since there was no power smoke signals would have been just as effective. I assume VOIP would be the same.
The smaller VoIP operators in the UK are issuing numbers beginning with 0870. These are non-geographic numbers which are charged at the basic long-distance rate from wherever you call. However, since these calls are excluded from the discounts offered by most carriers on regular long-distance calls, there is some (small) surplus revenue which gets shared with the VoIP service provider and which pays for some of their costs. Change provider, lose your number as that revenue stream gets choked off.
There is also a block of numbers with the 07 prefix allocated for "personal" numbers - numbers that follow you to wherever you happen to be. These are charged at mobile rates, which accounts for their relative lack of uptake: you might as well have a mobile phone in your pocket than keep redirecting the "personal" number to your nearest landline as you move about.
A new block of numbers has provisionally been allocated for VoIP, but apart from BT, no-one really seems yet to be using it.
However, the point about all of these numbers is that they cost more to call than a regular landline. Some cost more than others, but they all cost more.
Part of this is due to the fact that the telephone network is built to map numbers to physical equipment. There can be several local telephone service providers in the same geographic area and they're required to allow customers to move their numbers between competitors. The only way this can happen is for the calls to go to the network which orginally allocated the number and for it then to be bounced on to the new terminating network: this is a cost to the network with whom the customer is no longer doing business.
The same technological constraint applies to non-geographic numbers: someone has to own and operate the terminating equipment for the dialled number and then relay the call on to a "genuine" landline. However, in this case, the telco gets to charge for its services. Which is why the calls cost more.
The same thing is true for landline calls to VoIP numbers: they have to go to terminating equipment somewhere and hop off onto the IP network. If you want to change your provider and keep your number, someone has to pay to keep that terminating equipment in place. That someone is probably you.
Of course, it would be possible to re-engineer the phone networks so that the whole of the number you dial is looked up to make the routing decision rather than the first few digits, but look back a few years at the problem of growing Internet routing tables and remember why CIDR was invented.
The real solution is an alpha keypad you can type your domain name on...
>If I dial a mobile in another country, I have no competitive bargaining power for what I'll be charged
Yes, and that is why here in Denmark we pay twice as much to call a mobile from a PSTN phone as from a mobile on a different carrier.
> Competition has driven down the per minute costs.
Except the per minute cost to calls outside the country.
I have Vonage with an additional "virtual number" to add free inbound calling from another state. Inbound calls can come to either number and my phone rings, but only my "main" number shows on outbound calls.
500GB of disk, 5TB of transfer, $5.95/mo
After a bitter divorce the ex-wife moved out of state. Her rule was the kids could not call long distance (and could not call me). I got a cell phone with a local number to them so they could call on a regular basis. It worked well, but it was $70 a month. This would be much less expensive way to go.
VOIP conferencing anyone?
I see a service!
Call it, dial an ID/password, dial the other party's number, hang up and it calls both back.
No charges to anyone other than the initial call and talk as long as ya like.
There are regional bells left to "go quietly into the night?"
I thought they had all been acquired slowly by SBC?
-- "The reward of suffering is experience." - Aeschylus
Nor would I want them to. Where I live, my phone service is, and has always been, much more dependable than any form of high speed Internet service that I have ever tried. I've still got an old, rotary dial phone stashed away, so even if the power goes out, I can still make phone calls. For VOIP to work you need power and you need a live high speed internet connection. A standard phone line and rotary dial phone requires neither. I'd rather pay a little extra for a standard line that I know will be there if I need it than save a few bucks but be screwed if the power goes out (which happens from time to time where I live) or if my Internet connection goes down, or both.
Is the concept of rate centers that the Bell companies relied on to boost their revenues. For example, even though my VoIP line is a Providence rate center I could put it anywhere in the world and still have that Providence based number. Calling out is meaningless in North America as everything is in essence my local calling area. But for those poor saps in Providence who still want to call me, they'd be dialing a local call and reaching me somewhere on the other side of the world if I chose to do so. The Baby Bell's, though I believe that term is a misnomer now, are going to be buried by VoIP. Verizon for example is spending a heavy chunk of money to roll out FIOS. Problem is, not everybody is going to buy into it. The return won't be nearly what the expense was and look for Verizon's implosion to start shortly.
Thank you ... I had the wrong South*Bell
SBC is Southwest Bell.
The lingo service will try and port your current number to the voip platform but existing carriers make it hard... however it can be done.
Also, when you sign up you can get additional numbers from all around the world and across the US. Your pals in those areas can dial you like you're local. You pay a montly fee for additional numbers.
The web site says lingo offers numbers in: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Puerto Rico, United States, and the United Kingdom.
I don't think that list is complete, but whatever.
It's becoming more common in Europe to add the international prefix to mobile phone numbers even if you're in the same country. All of my UK numbers are +44nnnnnnnn, as it avoids problems when internationally roaming.
It's part of the GSM spec that dialing the complete number should work. Quite a few phones will default to using the home country to store numbers if they are entered without a country code. Since it means that stored numbers will "just work" if the phone is roamed internationally.
In many cases fixed networks will not allow you to dial the number with the country code.
I have a Vonage account and my ISP is Comcast. For the first two months the service was OK. But in the last 3 weeks I have not been able to place or receive a call that did now sound incredibly choppy. Comcast gives you 256K upload bandwidth, and I had Vonage set to use 30K, which should have been fine. But an examination of my logs shows that I am constantly getting hammered by Internet worms as old as the original Code Red, I get port scanned 5-10 times a day, and God knows what else goes on that kills my bandwidth.
Plus, as we know, Cable bandwidth is shared, so if every teenager on the block is downloading huge torrent files, that can also affect the quality of the service.
As much as I like the price and the feature set, my ISP has prevented me from being able to use it, so I had to go back to Verizon.
I wish I could submit my logs from my Linux box to Comcast and have them block all the infected machines and port scanning crackers out there!
It's finally starting to get better.
Ironically, I believe that T-mobile coming on to the midwestern market has made a huge difference.
Not that we have the super-cool Japanese phones, but we have passible models now, and prices are more than reasonable for everyone to have their own phone.
Login to Amazon.com us section, and look at Cell Phones & Service.
Part of the problem is that Sprint, Verizon, and U.S. Cellular are STILL using fairly old fashion CDMA phones---I know that there are CDMA phones which aren't too old, but for some reason the U.S. carrier run the crappy ones. Nextel makes pretty neat CDMA phones-- They are pushing GPS integration into phones now, which is neat, but I'm much happier with my choices on T-mobile.
WhiteWolf666 an exBush supporter. All you new-school,compassionate,save the children Republicans can rot in hell
Number portability across telco service providers is a great thing, extending that portability to the area code is better.
But it shows just how dated the whole "telephone number" mapping between integers to phones is getting.
What I'd like to see is the whole number thing get completely submerged in the same way that IP addresses were submerged by hostnames and DNS. This is already happening at the personal level, as I speed dial "3" or select a name in my phone's memory. If I could key in "Fred's Restaurant, Sydney" and get a directory lookup returned to my phone that would be nice. Unfortunately, my cell phone company likes the status quo of charging me for voice based directory lookups.
The other thing: something like TLS based authentication for CallerID, with inverse directory lookups in my favorite RBL on "Citizens for Responsible Exploitation", etc.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
My taxes of Ma'Bell's (Verizon) ended up being around $18.00 a month. I had all the features, yada yada yada. I never really used my home phone, I just need a real line for DirecTV DVR to call home. Vonage with all those same features was about $17.00 for all (including taxes).. So.. why should I pay more than $50 a month when i can pay $17.... Hey verizon.. tell ya what... I'll come back when you can price out Vonage plus email me my voice mail messages ;-)
Obama = Socialism.
STFU !
I still don't understand how this will work without prefix routing tables. It still comes down to Whose switch is routing my calls and whose available upstream or down. The routing tables will be HUGE! I know number portability is a reality now... but I wish I knew how everyone (the bells) know who is hosting who!
Oddly enough I live in the 666 exchange in Lafayette. I get a fair number of odd looks when I give a phone number that starts (after the area code) with 666. I'd heard that phone companies were avoiding that number in their exchanges due to that silly superstition, but I guess with how tight the phone numbers are getting they had to use 'em all. Phone number of the beast heh heh heh...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
VoIP providers have been letting customers pick their area codes and phone numbers for quite a while now.
The only thing that's new is that they don't have to go through the rigarmarole they used to have to go through to offer them.
Insert witty sig here.
Area codes becoming arbitrary is only the beginning of the end. The real "end of an era" will come when callers no longer need phone numbers to place calls.
Think about it. It was never a good idea to force callers to memorize a partly-random 10+ digit number to make contact with the person they wanted (much less extra numbers for work, cell, pager, etc). That practice is merely an artifact of the users having to directly interface with the hardware of an unintelligent network. Those days are ending. Well within our lifetimes, the network will become smart enough that it will find your party for you. A lot of problems have to be solved before this "just works", but it will happen.
"We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." --The American President (20.1.2009)
Thanks, I thought that was from a Rush song. Funny how the mind works.
it's a blue bright blue Saturday hey hey
I've just switched to Vonage. We never used our land line, but wanted one for those international calls. Now we are paying $55 LESS a month for MORE features. And calling Mommy in California is local, and my husbands sister in Taz 3cents/min. When I called qwest to cancel my phone - I told them we could no longer afford to keep it. They offered us a free month. Still too expensive. I forsee the problem will be that for those who cannot use broadband/VoIP, their bills will go up. This is due to the fact that everyone who uses a baby bell is subsidizing those rural and hard-to-reach areas. Case in point: that parish in Lousiana where they finally got phone service last week.
Allowing people to take their numbers with them is the opposite approach to the Internet. On the 'net, we let the numbers dictate the routing, which makes routing much simpler. To avoid user confusion, we layer on top the domain name system which not only avoids problems with location changes but also provides a much more memorable identifier for each endpoint.
Perhaps a DNS-like system for the telephone network should be considered. I'm imagining some kind of "nameserver" at each local exchange which the phones can talk to. It'll probably require changes to the hardware all over the place, though, so I guess it's unlikely to ever happen. At least VoIP can use symbolic identifiers. (It's still tied to your VoIP provider the way most people use it, of course. How long will it be before companies start to provide VoIP forwarding in similar vein to email forwarding, I wonder?)
I'm waiting for a story on the Lincoln assassination next.
I think it balances out. Here in the US we pay for incoming and outgoing cell calls, but we have a flat monthly fee for local landline calls. If I call friends here in town from my home number I don't pay extra if I call them at their cell phones.
And even though we (mostly) don't have cell-only area codes, caller ID does say "wireless call" or something similar.
Nope, there are landlines in 917. My office has about 20 numbers in 917, all on landlines.
I used to think the same thing.
The unsig!
just give me a forking personal IP and at least dial up for life and VOIP for everything makes sense.
Ok, I got it. When I was talking about reaching somebody on the phone, I'm afraid I had my tiny contacts list in mind. ....
As far as they can help memorize how to reach somebody, they're useful. Anyway, maybe in the future we don't use 'area' codes, but 'job' codes, or some other agrupation method (that's what it is at the end, an 'aggrupation' method -and Sorry for my awfull english-).
I think the point is How do we organize people?? Nowadays we use the old geographical method, which was and still is good, but more & more often people doesn't need to "settle down" to make a living. (And my secret hope is not to need it anymore for anybody). We actually need to belong to some territorial tribe, but I think most of these 'needs' came from the fact that there are many things we need to use, to have, or to live in, that needs lots of people working together in the same place, but that's not mandatory, as more and more things are digitalized and more and more robot-style machines do the stuff right
Anyway, sorry for this amount of 'nothing'. Just to say YOU GOT ME!!! have fun.
I say if all 10 best candidates are women, hire them. If the 10 best candidates are in wheelchairs, hire them. If the 10 best candidates are black or hispanic or white or red or yellow or whatever, hire them. Just don't make me take a lesser candidate to fill some damn quota.
[End of Rant]
"I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
I've been considering VIOP (Vongae) and I'm wondering if it's possible to hook up the POTS network in my house (after discon from Quest) to VIOP. What hardware and/or hacks are required to do this?
Thanks for any help.
I've been living in Santa Barbara with a Phoenix area code (using Vonage) for over a year, and I'm hardly an early adopter.
In any case, phone numbers not tied to a location are nothing new. My cell provider (Sprint) has let me change area code without verifying my actual location. (They used to be picky about having your initial area code match your billing address. Don't know if they still are.) And VoIP providers have always let people pick their area code, provided only they have phone numbers in that area code available.
I suppose that if we ever completely abandon the old landline system (unlikely), or if the landline system stops charging extra for long-distance calls (vaguely possible), then we might have area codes that aren't tied to a location. But until them, nobody will offer them because nobody would use them -- why make people pay extra to call you?
Sure, but at least our numbers are somewhat standardized. You'll never get a phone number that's too big to store in a certain slot. I'm hoping we go to hexadecimal!
Transcend Humanity. Please.
I can't admit how I know this, but to be sure, the recent purchase of AT&T by SBC was made EXCLUSIVELY to *stem* the growth of VoIP.
AT&T had recently sworn off their Big Bell ways and dedicated themselves to VoIP exclusively.
It was just a setup, guys. AT&T *wanted* to get bought out, and by an old Baby Bell too. What better way to do this than to threaten the Baby Bells with something they'd like to extinguish?!?!?
Anything that threatens the necessity for twisted pair to the house is a threat to the burgeoning Baby Bells. VoIP represents the biggest of those threats.
AT&T bought? Threat averted.
Makin' money, makin' friends, makin' whoopee and wearin' Depends
God help the John Smiths of the world.
This is my sig. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
nice Dylan Thomas reference in the summary there... "The regional bells will not go quietly into that good night."
Karma: Can there be a void?
.. -. - . .-. .-. --- -...
Which of these conductors do I short to dial an operator?
no area code is truely wired/wireless/VoIP (in the US anyways). if you already have a number that is either a landline, cell, or VoIP line, you can "port" it to any other "service"(device) plugged into the phone grid. granted that you've paid your bill and your prior provider doesn't hate you. this is one of the best things the FCC has done. and there is really no way your phone company can legally know if the number you call is a cell phone or not(in the US) unless that number is one of their customers numbers. Phone companies don't talk back and forth about that stuff(its against their privacy policies).
now, if you don't have a number to transfer to your landline, in the US, you have to take whatever phone number they give you. wireless, i believe you can request a number(varies from provider to provider). VoIP (take whatever they have available).