If IANA goes with a.tel domain, they better use E.164 formatted numbers with ENUM. Anything less would make them complete fucking retards and result in.tel becoming a fantastic failure. Using ENUM will allow anyone in the world with a phone number to have their own unique internet domain, and the telcos provisioning the numbers would be responsible for making the associated domain available to the phone number's assignee. Whip up a site at that number and you could run an applet to receive voip calls to your line via the fucking website... how awesome would that be?
10-digit NANPA numbers should be directly accessible under.tel; for example, www.212-555-1212.tel would be a New York City number. Non-NANPA schemes could be accessed using the country's domestic numbering scheme followed by a country code; a typical London number could be expressed as www.020-1234-5678.uk.tel. Or alternatively, you could type the E.164 format to reach either number, such as www.011-212-555-1212.tel, or www.44-020-1234-5678.tel. As mobile internet improves, you would alternatively see more and more.tel sites being hosted directly on the recipient's device. Imagine typing in a phone number in your browser and it takes you directly to a hosted page on the actual phone. You could leave a text message or a voicemail without having to dial the number and possibly disturb the recipient, or choose to place a voip call if you really do want to bug them. But all of this will be pointless if they fuck it up and go with first/last names.
I've been in your shoes before in my last job. You need to exercise some leverage, and you're in a good position to do so. I cooked up a gameplan when I had the same issues you're having now.
1. If you're not doing so already, document everything you see problems with. When the shit hits the fan months after you've warned your superiors about a developing problem they ignored, it feels REALLY GOOD to forward the original emails to the entire management mailing list after they start bitching and moaning and pretending they don't know what you're talking about.
2. Start looking for other jobs, preferably something better than what you're doing (either more money for the same bullshit, or less stress for the same amount, whatever floats your boat).
3. Once you have hard offers you like, stall. Tell them you need time to finish current projects with your employer, maybe 4 weeks. After all, you don't want to burn any bridges, right? Most potential employers serious about hiring you will respect and appreciate your honesty and ethics, and wait for you.
4. Immediately schedule vacation time after you received an offer; at least a full work week, preferably a week and a half. Can't get the vacation authorization? Make something up! Death in the family, jury duty, whatever it takes! Immediately get out of that office by any means necessary for at least a week after you've received an offer! Turn your phone or blackberry off during that time, do not check your email! Do nothing special to prep for your absence anymore than you would for a typical weekend. You want your coworkers to start fires while you're gone, so make sure you leave plenty of matches and kindling around, ok?
5. After you get back and put out the remaining fires, immediately schedule a meeting. Be insistent and pushy, accept no brushoffs. Make that meeting happen! Make sure you're prepared and have your homework done, address your concerns, back up your claims with your documentation. Tell them exactly what you want.
You'll now have all the leverage, and they'll have none. If they refuse, tell them you recieved another offer but don't want to leave the company, yet feel as if they're "backing you into a corner". Tell them you "beleive in the company and it's potential", "..truly want to see it succeed", "..help take it even further". But you can't do it without the right tools or salary, and their refusal to help you leaves you with no other choice.
Either way you win. In the end they'll either cave, or you'll be in a better job while they're stuck with a piece of shit infrastructure falling apart, and some other schmuck will get conned into taking it over and have to deal with the same bullshit you dealt with for 6 years. My demands were not met, so I graciously bid my previous employer farewell and left my dead-end sysadmin job with a company treading water, using old-ass equipment that can barely be upgraded for fear of paralyzing every system. That company is now in danger of being split apart and the pieces being sold off. Their dilapidated IT infrastructure, with ignorance of my complaints for 4 years and waiting until the last minute to overhaul our infrastructure, is mostly to blame. My former coworkers are scrambling to find other work out of fear they'll be sold out of their current jobs.
I'm now working as a network engineer making far better money, in a fast-rising company filled with abundant opportunities to work with bleeding edge technology every day.
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If IANA goes with a .tel domain, they better use E.164 formatted numbers with ENUM. Anything less would make them complete fucking retards and result in .tel becoming a fantastic failure. Using ENUM will allow anyone in the world with a phone number to have their own unique internet domain, and the telcos provisioning the numbers would be responsible for making the associated domain available to the phone number's assignee. Whip up a site at that number and you could run an applet to receive voip calls to your line via the fucking website... how awesome would that be?
10-digit NANPA numbers should be directly accessible under .tel; for example, www.212-555-1212.tel would be a New York City number. Non-NANPA schemes could be accessed using the country's domestic numbering scheme followed by a country code; a typical London number could be expressed as www.020-1234-5678.uk.tel. Or alternatively, you could type the E.164 format to reach either number, such as www.011-212-555-1212.tel, or www.44-020-1234-5678.tel. As mobile internet improves, you would alternatively see more and more .tel sites being hosted directly on the recipient's device. Imagine typing in a phone number in your browser and it takes you directly to a hosted page on the actual phone. You could leave a text message or a voicemail without having to dial the number and possibly disturb the recipient, or choose to place a voip call if you really do want to bug them. But all of this will be pointless if they fuck it up and go with first/last names.
1. If you're not doing so already, document everything you see problems with. When the shit hits the fan months after you've warned your superiors about a developing problem they ignored, it feels REALLY GOOD to forward the original emails to the entire management mailing list after they start bitching and moaning and pretending they don't know what you're talking about.
2. Start looking for other jobs, preferably something better than what you're doing (either more money for the same bullshit, or less stress for the same amount, whatever floats your boat).
3. Once you have hard offers you like, stall. Tell them you need time to finish current projects with your employer, maybe 4 weeks. After all, you don't want to burn any bridges, right? Most potential employers serious about hiring you will respect and appreciate your honesty and ethics, and wait for you.
4. Immediately schedule vacation time after you received an offer; at least a full work week, preferably a week and a half. Can't get the vacation authorization? Make something up! Death in the family, jury duty, whatever it takes! Immediately get out of that office by any means necessary for at least a week after you've received an offer! Turn your phone or blackberry off during that time, do not check your email! Do nothing special to prep for your absence anymore than you would for a typical weekend. You want your coworkers to start fires while you're gone, so make sure you leave plenty of matches and kindling around, ok?
5. After you get back and put out the remaining fires, immediately schedule a meeting. Be insistent and pushy, accept no brushoffs. Make that meeting happen! Make sure you're prepared and have your homework done, address your concerns, back up your claims with your documentation. Tell them exactly what you want.
You'll now have all the leverage, and they'll have none. If they refuse, tell them you recieved another offer but don't want to leave the company, yet feel as if they're "backing you into a corner". Tell them you "beleive in the company and it's potential", "..truly want to see it succeed", "..help take it even further". But you can't do it without the right tools or salary, and their refusal to help you leaves you with no other choice. Either way you win. In the end they'll either cave, or you'll be in a better job while they're stuck with a piece of shit infrastructure falling apart, and some other schmuck will get conned into taking it over and have to deal with the same bullshit you dealt with for 6 years. My demands were not met, so I graciously bid my previous employer farewell and left my dead-end sysadmin job with a company treading water, using old-ass equipment that can barely be upgraded for fear of paralyzing every system. That company is now in danger of being split apart and the pieces being sold off. Their dilapidated IT infrastructure, with ignorance of my complaints for 4 years and waiting until the last minute to overhaul our infrastructure, is mostly to blame. My former coworkers are scrambling to find other work out of fear they'll be sold out of their current jobs.
I'm now working as a network engineer making far better money, in a fast-rising company filled with abundant opportunities to work with bleeding edge technology every day.
Good luck to you!