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Are Phone Numbers Doomed To Die? (fortune.com)
HughPickens.com writes: Valentina Zarya writes at Fortune Magazine that the top 2016 prediction for David Marcus, Facebook's vice president of messaging products, is the disappearance of the phone number and its replacement by applications like Facebook's Messenger. " You can make video and voice calls while at the same time not needing to know someone's phone number," writes Marcus. "You don't need to have a Facebook account to use Messenger anymore, and it's also a cross platform experience – so you can pick up where you left off whether you're on a desktop computer, a tablet, or your phone." Jonah Berger, Wharton professor and author of "Contagious: Why Things Catch On" agrees. "For most of us, I think it's really hard to actually remember what someone's phone number actually is. We use our phones so often or we click on a button that has it. But if there was a test where you had to say, do you remember your best friends number or could you type in your best friend's number I think most of us would fail."
But not everyone agrees that Marcus' predictions are objective and disinterested. "It's all very well the company wanting to be the de facto Internet — especially in places like India. But drier minds and eyes might wonder whether the wish to eradicate phone numbers has something to do with not everyone having yet given Facebook their phone numbers," says Chris Matyszczyk. "It may well be that phone numbers will disappear. Some, though, might wonder how making their disappearance a company theme squares with what Marcus claims is the ultimate goal: 'It's all about delight.' This one's easy. It's all about delighting Facebook."
But not everyone agrees that Marcus' predictions are objective and disinterested. "It's all very well the company wanting to be the de facto Internet — especially in places like India. But drier minds and eyes might wonder whether the wish to eradicate phone numbers has something to do with not everyone having yet given Facebook their phone numbers," says Chris Matyszczyk. "It may well be that phone numbers will disappear. Some, though, might wonder how making their disappearance a company theme squares with what Marcus claims is the ultimate goal: 'It's all about delight.' This one's easy. It's all about delighting Facebook."
But I hope the "database" isn't Facebook. I would hope it would be something like DNS/Bind in the IP world....
I bet Facebook would think twice about wanting to replace phone numbers with Facebook IDs when they see the regulations common carriers operate under.
Quite a few people are not on Facebook, Twitter, etc. It would also be _hugely_ unprofessional to do any job-related communication over such a venue.
This is just the usual bullshit from people that get starry-eyes when fantasizing how the future will be, but have no clue how reality actually works. Basically the only old global communication channel that has vanished is the telegram. And there are services in many countries that will print out an email and deliver it to the target address for a fee. So, really, complete nonsense.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Please, someone reply with something hopeful, like "On the whole, overhyping topics is actually on the decrease"....
These days, phone numbers are used for more than just making calls. They're integrated into authentication and authorization services like Duo, ITunes, Amazon (maybe), Google authenticator, etc. I think it's going to take a while to disengage/decouple phone numbers from business processes.
Did IP numbers disappear?
Behind the comms there will still be numbers or codes to lead to the address.
I'd be damned to use Facebook's spying services when I don't even have to log in or go to a specific site or app to press a pre-set button and make a call.
Or simply scan through my address book, click on the name and talk.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
I'd Love it if someone turned the lights off on facebook.
You still need to verify someones identity to contact him and a number is the most data efficient way to do so.
Aside from that, contact lists have not killed the phone number, why should Facebook?
Telephone service is a public utility, and as such has a variety of regulations, including on how pricing works, and where service is provided. If it is to be replaced, we need some other sort of public utility that can be used for communications.
- Universally Ubiquitous
- Nationalized
- Lowest Common Denominator
- (for POTS anyway) Pretty damn rock solid in most of the world
Did Facebook kill Email? No.
Did Google kill the address bar? No.
Did Apple kill the PC? No.
Did solar panels (insert any other energy technology) kill the grid? No.
Will Facebook messenger (or any company-centric IM system) kill telephones? No.
Next flamebait topic please.
Bye!
Betteridge's Law of Headlines.
Phone numbers are the defacto, common and relatively stable identifier that most people possess today. Yes, it may be archaic, but most people are comfortable with it, a global, relatively neutral means of communication. It's neutrality is protected by a patchwork of government regulations worldwide, and until one single company, alliance of companies, or single open standard becomes globally adopted at the same level as the phone number, Facebook or anyone else isn't going to replace it. While I'm sure Facebook dreams of usurping that role, their penetration isn't nearly global enough to provide the scale to challenge it. Now, if they created alliances with the Tencents of the world for a unified standard, maybe, but we're a long, long way from that.
There is a need for a universal identifier standard for recipients and communication of some kind. A proprietary one is not acceptable, in the least because tech companies come and go like pop stars.
A new standard would only replace phone numbers if it offers something significantly better. Standards are rarely displaced by something just a little bit better. It's why QWERTY keyboards and SQL (as a language) are still common.
A communication ID standard that offers letters and longer identifiers may be competitive, but there's nobody pushing such in a non-proprietary way. (Phone numbers can also spell out short mnemonics, but in an awkward way.)
The phone system could morph into such because an existing phone number could still be a valid identifier within the new standard, somewhat like how UNICODE still contains ASCII.
Table-ized A.I.
"You don't need to have a Facebook account to use Messenger anymore"
Doesn't it bind by phone number if you don't want to create a FB account?
I can't see phone numbers disappearing, but I can see the possibility of shorter numbers being created for accounts that can only handle SMS and data.
Seven years ago, I met my wife (we were not yet married at the time, I can assure you), and we exchanged phone numbers. That the last time I think I ever looked at or thought about her phone number. I don't call numbers, I call contacts. The number in this case is like an initial handshake; once I have it I don't use it anymore. The phone number can go away quite easily because our mental schema is already prepared for it.
Yep. Trolling by Betteridge effect
"Go to CNN [for a] spell-checked, fact-checked summary" -- CmdrTaco
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I hereby predict that Facebook will disappear before phone numbers.
Let's come back in 20 years and compare my track record with David Marcus's.
In the present, everyone Googles everything through some sort of Chrome/Firefox awesome bar and nobody types in a domain anymore (except me and a few die-hard fellow type-in-traffic generators). Therefore in years to come Google will be just a collection of IPv6 addresses. Google will hardcode a bunch of them into chrome
As a replacement, Google will eventually implement a new system based on HTTP requests to some RESTful API they designed that returns an IPv6 address when queried with a human-readable name, therefore re-inventing DNS in a less efficient manner (but who cares because we'll all have 100GbE to the door by then)
Getting rid of phone numbers could get rid of bullshit phone sales people or so-called telemarketers, nonsense charities, and bill collectors. Since I uusally get several annoying such calls, every day, I think getting rid of phone numbers is a great idea.
but there are actually a few phone numbers that I remember, and can type on a telephone keypad (or the numbers-only widget on a smartphone) quicker than I can look them up (even with type-ahead on the person's name). They're also harder make data-entry errors with than a written-out e-mail address, or, worse, someone's Facebook or Google+ name.
>> "I think it's really hard to actually remember what someone's phone number actually is."
That's not how phone numbers are used. Today, they are one-time use IDs that we use to contact someone else, then both people's phones remember the number forever. In a way, it's like how Skype works: you type in the other person's ID (once) and you're forever connected.
I would say you heard it here first, but I would be surprised if it weren't posted already. :)
You still need some id over the mobile network. Ad of 4G it is an MSISDN.
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
Phone numbers may very well disappear, but there will still be some sort of "number" that ties you to whatever communications device you are using, even though it may be hidden. Just like right now on your Smartphone when you hit the "Call Mom" button. You may not even know the phone number, but it's still used. Call it another name if you like, like a userid, but it will still be there in one form or another.
How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.
Phone numbers are going to die. But Facebook isn't the answer. Any proprietary solution isn't the answer.
telephone service costs like 60 dollars a month minimum
I don't know where you're getting that figure, as I get telephone service from Virgin Mobile USA for $90 per year.
will never die. even the black and white ones!!!!!
I got to the chocolate box before you, that's why the hard ones have teeth marks.
Imagine if you called Marcus ... and got Mercus instead.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Zero, four, three, zero, two, nine is much easier to get correct than Esss, Eff, Bee, Pee.
That's why schools need to teach the long names of letters. "Sierra foxtrot bravo papa" should carry just as well as "zero four three zero two niner" over any given voice channel.
IMHO, I really don't want to tie everything to my real name and such on FB. I have used burner phones for Craigslist, and have been glad I did so when a would-be buyer demanded he pay in gift cards for an old generator I was selling, wouldn't meet me at a "safe deal zone" that a local PD set up, then became extremely threatening when I told him that I wouldn't sell to him unless he paid in cash.
Facebook thrives by destroying anonymity. They want to mine everything someone does, anywhere, anytime, tie it to the person (if they have an account or no), and sell that info off in a nice package to any comer who has the cash to pay for it. Their whole business is -your- business.
Then, there is authentication. I'll keep my phone number, because if I lose my phone, I can use SMS messages to get into my Gmail, .mac, and other accounts. SMS is common ground, and works regardless of what phone is holding the SIM card to my number. What would replace it? I don't trust Facebook as an authentication mechanism, as they have not been vetted by any independent lab for security (although FB hasn't had any serious breaches.)
FB can wind up abandoned as quickly as it gained steam. We saw that with Geocities, Hotmail, and MySpace. I can trust AT&T to be around a long time. A dot.com that, just like the many others that live from the ad revenue bubble, I wouldn't want to place my bets on. Even one as well-heeled as FB.
"phone numbers" are how the switching -- and billing -- are done for landlines, cell phones, and for many data services like DSL.
they are not going away. he can hide his, but he can't change everybody elses.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
Today, they are one-time use IDs that we use to contact someone else, then both people's phones remember the number forever.
"Forever" or "until I buy a new phone or have to borrow someone's"?
"Reports of the phone number's death have been greatly exaggerated."
(If nothing else, there will always be "867-5309.")
but who gets to administer the DNS servers/entries?
Perhaps the blockchain can do it.
Intermodal public transit systems may require the user to transfer from a subway train to a bus.
...they will never go away. They will only be patched over and worked around.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
In the past 15 years, I've been through over a dozen phone numbers in 5 different area codes, but have had a single email address (using my own domain).
Why would I count on an particular vendor's IM service to be my "phone number"? If I'm going to trust something to be a permanent identifier to reach me, I'm not going to use a company that's only been a public company for 4 years.
If you believe that Google will interview you over an anonymous channel I have a nice bridge you can buy.
Does it matter if it's not a "phone number" anymore, whatever it will be (certainly not an Facebook account), will function pretty much the same way, just with less oversight and more government and corporate snooping involved.
I don't see how the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet would cause a problem to speakers of English as a second language. In fact, it might clear up confusion. Case in point: G is called J in French, and J is called G. But the long names are "Golf" and "Juliett", which eliminates the problem.
You still need some id over the mobile network. Ad of 4G it is an MSISDN.
That threw me for a moment. How can 4G be modern if it uses Microsoft and ISDN?
FB can wind up abandoned as quickly as it gained steam. We saw that with Geocities, Hotmail, and MySpace. I can trust AT&T to be around a long time.
AT&T can fall off the map tomorrow, and phone numbers continue to work around the world. The advantage of phone and email (as technologies) over facebook messenger is that they aren't tied to a particular company AT ALL.
My email address will work independently of any company. And i move my email address from host company to company, as I see fit, or even self host if I feel the need.
My phone, likewise, I've moved between multiple carriers over the years; if carrier A started pissing me off too much, I'd move to carrier B.
The idea that you can have a messenger account with out a facebook account is just smoke and mirrors... of course you have a facebook account.
Do NOT want.
I'm wondering what the "Facebook" form of [...] the pizza place down the street to order some dinner
Probably something like Domino's Tweetzza.
Instant messaging services where starting to go this way a decade ago with Jabber, then Facebook and Google decided all of a sudden that this was somehow a BAD idea?
Because spam. WhatsApp, for example, is built on the same protocol as Jabber but has deliberate incompatibilities to discourage spammers.
I think if you're on a CDMA you need to buy what they call a "World Phone" - which does have both.
I could see the phone system at work soon becoming integrated with the email address book
You are a day late and a dollar short.
This will have to be more universal, with one provider seamlessly connecting with another. I don't want to keep 1 account per service and only having 1 account might limit who I could speak with. Imagine if email would have caught on if you had to have a gmail account in order to send an email to someone on gmail.
XMPP chat did most of what would be required, but it seems it's not catching on.
You have an IP address. Do you know it? Your computer can't really function without it nowadays. It's there, but it's not necessary to know.
Your phone has an IMEI number. Do you know it? Do you know what IP address it was assigned? Do you care? No.
But what detail do you remember? What do you login with? How do you give a contact your details? I don't know about you but I don't read out my phone number except in very rare circumstances. At worst, someone dials the other party's number ONCE, and then we both assign the number to a contact on our phones. With name, and photo. The things that remind us of that person. Nobody cares about the number.
Nobody is saying numbers will go away. We're saying nobody needs know them and it would only take a single protocol to come along with a hint of "coolness" to get rid of them forever.
Rather than "My number is..." and then a string of numbers, you'll just say "I'm fredbloggs21 on Whatsbook". And people will be able to get your phone number (which they'll store as Fred in their phones), email, IM, etc. just from that. They already do. The younger generations don't piss about with phone numbers already. They have no need. They find each other on facebook and then from there it's "What your instagram?" or whatever.
Phone numbers will die out of common use, the same way that IP addresses will. Nobody cares about what their particular one is, nobody need know it, nobody need share it. At worst, you give a descriptive name via a service that encompasses that number without you knowing. No different to DNS or email (Do you know what IP of what email server your email goes to when sent to your domain? Or that it goes to port 25? Because 99.9% of people couldn't give a shit).
The answer is "no", you ignorant web-obsessed dipsticks.
Phone numbers will be around for a long, long time, so stop babbling this nonsensical bullshit.
Obviously it's "Whackjob Wednesady" at slashdot, where the dumbest "news" article gets posted to the front page while real news is buried where it will never see the light of day.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
let me laugh harder. Regulations are for old tech. New tech (like Facebook, Uber, the sharing economy) is free to innovate without those pesky little things.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Anybody that has ever tried to look up a friend on Facebook or Skype knows how stupid this is. Apparently there are dozens of people in the world with the same exact name as the person I'm trying to contact... who knew? I was even surprised, when googling myself, to discover that there is a band out there that goes by my exact name, first name AND last name! (I'm thinking of suing them for trademark infringement, but they have yet to reply to my emails.)
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
AT&T & Verizon are working hard to kill POTS because it's burdened by tons of consumer protection laws that require them to offer good service to unprofitable customers in exchange for monopolies. Mobile has a lot fewer regulations. VOIP has almost none.
It's really hard to eliminate existing protections for consumers, but it's easy to prevent new ones from being created. Nobody even notices when they new stuff doesn't have them. That's what the "Sharing" economy is about. Getting rid of those pesky labor rules. This is the same thing.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
If this proposal goes into affect wait 'till you see the continuous robocalls and other "advertising" and non advertising spam on your cell phones voice calls. It will be continuous and not just 10 per day and you won't be able to keep up with it. What is happening to land lines will happen to cell phones.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
...there's so sort of open connectivity between disparate messaging services, the way there is for SMS or phone calls. Right now, I can call anyone with a phone from any other phone, regardless of who made the phones or what company is providing the service.
Meanwhile, it seems like every couple of weeks, someone is asking me to install whatever the hip new messaging app of the month is. No, I'm not going to install a program that just duplicates the functionality of four or five other programs I already have just so I can talk to one person.
My Verizon Note 5 seems to work fine in China. I drop my China Mobile SIM into it and it just works.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Maybe if there were a "standard" domain, such as "usa.phone" (assuming USA), then people can have "email" addresses like "BillGates38@USA.phone" that can also serve as a phone and texting number.
And the URL www.usa.phone/BillGates38 could be defined to publish more contact info (if so desired by ID owner).
No private organization could own "usa.phone", only manage it, or specific ID's using it. The ID part would be kind of like registering a domain name: you own the name, but can assign (rent) an ISP to host it. It's even similar to how you pay a phone company for your phone activation. The government would typically not host it, equipment-wise, only enforce ownership and transfer rights.
Old-style numbers could piggy-back on it so that you can have "987-654-3210@USA.phone" if your existing phone number is: 1 (987) 654-3210. Nobody else would be allowed to take it, as long as that's your phone number.
(Maybe alias the "1" so that "1-987-654-3210@USA.phone" means the same. That could avoid look-alike scamming.)
Table-ized A.I.
Next question.
I can see the phone number giving way to an IPV6 addess eventually, but it's not going to transform into some messenger app.
IMEI is not a bad way to uniquely identify someone. Except that people change phones every few years, and also, people may pass on their phones to other family members
So for most of the people we deal with every day, we will access them using the personal information we know, which in most cases would be name and address, with some of our friends being communicated with by phone, some by email and others by text, without having to know just one kind of communication address for each person. It's the same way we tag airline tickets with a locator code without realizing that as a hash, the code is not unique and always has to be used in conjunction with other information in identifying a record. Nobody every has to see the giant number that is the real unique identifier.
What nationality are these people who speak broken English? Is it NATO or otherwise? Because my solution would teach the spelling alphabet worldwide to speakers of all languages that use Latin letters. Your Chinese collaborators would learn it alongside Pinyin.
Maybe the phone wears out eventually, but the number is portable - by law in the US.
I was talking to an older lady one day a few years ago, and she told me that her grandchildren were telling her that Facebook was going to replace e-mail.
The notion that phone numbers are going away any time soon is just as idiotic!
The LAST thing I want is Facebook acting as a platform for ANY of my essential communications. They have repeatedly lied - over and over - about privacy. No way!
In fact, phone numbers were just the most convenient way to unambiguous identify a certain line. That this line was rented by some person with a name and an address is of no technical relevance. The end of the wire just happened to be on the premises of said person. With today's One Numbering Service, with call centers and phone mailboxes other ways to handle calls, the definition of what exactly a line is becomes somewhat vague, and the necessity to address it by a phone number is long gone.
Stop using Facebook.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
It's been years since just about everyone stopped using phone numbers for anything so I do see them going away - but not in 2016. People over 60 still "call" and do use "telephone numbers" to do that and they are not all going to die in 2016. Phone numbers will probably be around a decade or two, they will not go away in 2016, they will just become increasingly irrelevant.
One thing that is kind of funny: They appear to be trying. Even my old mother switched to VOIP like 5 years ago because the idea of paying by the minute for calling someone became totally absurd the moment the Internet came around. Now I see "mobile phone companies" offer "plans" where you get free calls and free SMS and some amount of data for a fixed amount of cash per month. Telephone numbers could actually get a comeback! I say could, though, because it's not likely. Nobody I know has been using numbers to call anyone for years and I don't think they will start now.
9/11: Never forget it was a false-flag operation
And sooner or later, that's going to happen with chat as well. The market just hasn't settled down yet, since companies are still figuring out what to do with these messenger services and how to encode and encrypt data, and interoperate and propagate presence data in real time. That's just a lot trickier than phone and E-mail service.
[Phone numbers] are one-time use IDs that we use to contact someone else, then both people's phones remember the number forever.
until I buy a new phone
Not sure what phones you've been buying, but that isn't in any way a factor and hasn't been for a long time.
What mechanism ensures that my contacts are synchronized when I buy a new phone on a different platform and port my number to a different network? Because it's a different network, I can't store contacts on a SIM and carry them that way, and some phones for CDMA2000 networks don't even have a CSIM slot to move service to another phone on the same network. Because it's a different platform (Android vs. iOS vs. feature phones), I can't sync using the operating system publisher's backup server. Consider, for example, the case of porting my number from an Audiovox 8610 on Virgin Mobile USA to a Nexus 5 on Straight Talk.
Many actually do. And all US carriers are moving to SIMs and LTE anyway.
And all US carriers are moving to SIMs and LTE anyway.
Even for voice, or only for data?
Phone numbers are the universal mechanism that people can use to contact each other around the entire world, whether by voice or (now a days) message.
Can I use Facebook Messenger to talk to someone using ICQ? No.
Can I use Skype to talk to someone using What'sApp? No.
As long as we have these idiotic balkanised bullshit systems run by companies for the sole purpose of harvesting your personal data first, and maybe money second, phone numbers will *never* be replaced, nor would I want it to be thank you very much.
David Marcus can say what he wants about telephone numbers going away. Linkedin has 350 entries for David Marcus. .....................
When David Smith was my manager, he was one of 22 David Smith's in IBM US. Linkedin now has a total of 22,807 results for David Smith.
The problem isn't having 1 number for a person, it is having home, cell, & work phones; personal & business email; and id's on facebook, whatsap, skype,
And sooner or later, that's going to happen with chat as well.
Will it though? The technology to allow interoperability has existed for years. The companies do not want interoperability though. They want to advertise, and to advertise they need control of the client.
since companies are still figuring out what to do with these messenger services and how to encode and encrypt data, and interoperate and propagate presence data in real time.
No. Its not really tricky at all to send messages to someone else. Solutions to these problems have existed for years.
your chat name could soandso@domain; a domain is mapped to a service provider. so you can be john@gmail served by gmail. or you can be john@personaldomain served by gmail, or john@personaldomain served by msn. etc, etc.
Pick a standard port number.
Message Routing is solved. Preserve the message is't delivered if you aren't mutual contacts, and spam is managed. Contact management itself is a solved problem as well.
presense propagation is as simple as registering your status with your service when you connect. there are a few strategies for communicating it from there to other services. Its not especially diffiicult.
Solutions already exist. (e.g. Jabber federation)
The companies are not "figuring out how to do it"; they've figured out that they don't want to do it. Facebook doesn't want any one messaging anyone using a client other than FB messenger. Skype doesn't want anyone messaging anyone using a client other than skype. etc etc. They all want lock-in and user counts... that creates value for their advertising efforts.
Look at Pidgin the "universal chat client". What there is mostly stuff from the 90s... ICQ, AIM, MSN. And even those don't actually talk to eachother, no pidgin still needs you to have an account on *each* supported network; and messages need to go between them. And what about the big new protocols in use?
No skype, whats app, imessage, instagram, steam, fb messenger... practically all the big new protocols go out of the way to prevent you using an unsanctioned client. And they certainly aren't interested in letting you send message outside of their networks.
Google, the one company that was allowing XMPP federation; stopped.
Chat is steadily becoming increasingly more closed.
Told us we'd all be signing up for Microsoft Network instead.
Yeah, it's always 911.
Unless you're in Europe where it's 112.
Unless you're in the UK where it's 999 (but 112 will work).
But maybe you're in Italy where each emergency service has its own phone number (and 112 just delays you by asking which you would like).
Or you could press the "emergency dialling" thing on your phone.
You're missing the point. The NUMBER is just a number. If anything, you're arguing FOR throwaway numbers where the number means even less. Imagine if you could generate a new phone number for your bank like a new wallet address for your Bitcoin. And yet all your old ones still work just fine. But nobody can link your numbers. And when someone spams your number, you can just delete JUST THAT NUMBER. But the actual number means NOTHING.
The number is dead. You're talking about antiquities. And people report crime over Facebook or websites every single day already. You can do it by text. You can do it by Skype (IT HAS EMERGENCY DIALLING FUNCTIONALITY BUILT INTO THE SOFTWARE!). Hell, the numbers for reporting crime are different again (101 if it's not an emergency, in the UK, for example).
Rather than remember a fuck-ton of numbers like we did before the devices could store them, we just need an emergency dialling button, which most of us have on the lock screen of our phone already. Hell, my car can emergency dial for me nowadays if the airbags goes off. What number it ends up dialling is as unimportant as what IP address it picks up over the 4G connection, or what IMEI it uses. Sure, it's listed in a database somewhere but only your phone and the service provider need ever know it.
Do you REALLY want to piss about with numbers in an emergency? And if your bank calls, they need to know "your number". Of course. But people already hold phone numbers that are based on mnemonics, and they already give out phone numbers that can change the next week, and they already DO NOT DIAL other's phone numbers, but select a contact from a list.
It's just one fad away from you getting a "me-code" or whatever it'll be called, where we all grab our domain names or usernames or images or QR codes or whatever's easiest (fuck, NFC is on all phones now and eliminates this "sharing numbers" shite) because they be linked to our phone number (like WhatsApp - do you know the numbers of ANY of your WhatsApp contacts?). So nobody has to remember the fucking number (which is stupid in this day and age), they just have to know what name you go by on that particular service. Like "dial Amazon.com" to be put through to Amazon customer service. Who cares what the NUMBER is?
As such, the numbers are dead. Back in the day, you used to be able to ask for, say, Burnley 312 and be put through to the 312nd house in Burnley to be put on the telephone. We got rid of that shit because it's not a useful way to link a person that you want to contact. Now we literally can say "phone Fred", or tag a QR code, or click a Skype link, or tap a link in a text message. It's literally one step from the number disappearing forever and being replaced with a set of usernames that follow you wherever you go (so no more of this "home phone" and "mobile phone" and "work phone" shite - just generate two accounts for home and work and you can be contacted and accept calls as you like).
People are ALREADY doing this. VoIP basically does this, and guess what the next generation of communication networks have been built on? You're more likely to be giving out something that's actually linked to a SIP account in future than anything to do with an area code.
Stop, and look around you. Seriously. Yes, numbers are still out there. But so are business cards, people who publish their business numbers in the phone book, and rolodexes. It doesn't mean they have a future.