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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 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...
Something like that is actually happening in Germany, where existing laws are being used, to hinder VoIP providers from entering the market, and you bet that Telekom (former staat owned telco) is doing everything to keep this kind of competition out of the market!
Selfpreservation is a natural law, the lies and hypocricy is what bothers me really.
It will take a while until we see that next digital revolution...
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.
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]
<<I will exchange a London number for a New York number... any takers...>>
I've heard rumors that Vontage is none too hip to this idea. While the advertise the fact that you can make a call from *anywhere* with an internet connection I've been told they crack down if you use the service too much i.e. if you were to buy a box with a New York number and use it only in London.
I've got to say that this is not true at all. I use Vonage from France with a U.S. phone number (about 3 hours of phone calls every weekend). When Vonage found out about this, not only weren't they bothered, but they asked to me to do an interview with the Wall Street Journal. Also, they now happily offer up the virtual phone numbers in all of their countries to any customer for around $5/month. If I want, I can add a UK, US, Canada, or Mexico phone number.
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.
Well, as a local market VoIP provider, we offer 911 service. We work with the 911 authority to update their database when we assign a client a number. Of course, the problem here is if the client moves locations and doesn't inform us. The lack of an elegant 911 system is definitely the biggest stumbling block to wide spread VoIP deployment IMHO
If you use sipgate (http://www.sipgate.co.uk/) you can sign up for just about any area code in the UK. You can choose any area you want when it asks you for your "area code of residence" and your billing address can be somewhere else.
You can also get a free US number to forward to any SIP phone from http://www.ipkall.com/
A latent existence
Yes.
Enhanced 911 Services, or 911 trunks to each PSAP in markets served by $VoIP_Company both solve this problem. Neither is manditory, but many providers offer it to achieve parity with POTS features.
E911 is not just for wireless anymore. Here's another good link:
http://www.911dispatch.com/information/voip.html
UK? Go to redtelecom.co.uk, sipgate.co.uk, voipuser.com (amongst others). You can get just about any area code including local, London national (02000), 08xx etc.. And I've seen US clients using UK numbers (gives them a European presence). Some say that 01/02 can only be used by UK residents. Vonage.co.uk gives London area codes at the moment.
Did he inhale?