iMessage, Skype, Google Voice and the death of the phone number

[nehrou]

I hate phone numbers. They’re a relic of an outmoded system that both wireless and wireline carriers use to keep people trapped on their services — a false technological prison built of nothing but laziness and hostility to consumers. In fact, I can’t think of a single telecom service that is as restrictive as the phone number: email can be accessed from any device, Skype makes apps for nearly every platform, IM works across any number of clients, there are web-based messaging solutions that transcend platforms entirely — the list goes on. We expect modern telecom services to be universal, cheap, and easily-accessible, and those that aren’t tend to be immediate failures. Ask Cisco how Umi went for them sometime.

Yet the phone number remains stubbornly fixed with a single carrier and single device, even as consumers begin to move every other aspect of their lives to the cloud. And the more I think about it, the more ridiculous it seems: Why can’t I open a desktop app and use my wireless minutes to make VoIP calls? Why can’t I check and respond to my text messages online? Why can’t I pick up any phone from any carrier, enter my phone service information, and be on my way, just as with email or IM or Skype? Why are we still pretending that phone service is at all different from any other type of data? The answer to almost all of these questions is carrier lock-in — your phone number is a set of handcuffs that prevents you from easily jumping ship, and they know it.

Happily, it seems like the industry is beginning to fight back. No platform provider wants to be limited by something as archaic and stupid as the phone number, and Apple, Google, and Microsoft have each taken serious steps towards eliminating phone number as we know it. What’s interesting is that each company has taken a dramatically different approach, with different tradeoffs along the way — let’s take a look.

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Though I myself would love the death of the phone number....before that happens I want the 'ultimate' cross-platform app developed providing no hassle...hmmm...but I think that day is far ahead of us.

[pezz]

I really dont see this happening. Article is dumb.

Writer must have written this after taking crystal meth.

[zerodeth]

I wish I knew more people with gtalk

[vylle]

lmao me too................

[Yung_Jah]

This wont be happening soon....especially for Jamaica....thats like another 50years...lol or more...by then...demands for a wireless compatible phone will create more criminals...just like the blackberry trend. Killing/robbing people over blackberries

Plus, this will allow for more idlers in the school system, spending too much time on skype, showing their goodies and also allowing for more rapist.

[fishrule]

I sincerely doubt Jamaica's crime problems can be blamed on Blackberries, our culture has suffered from excessive violence long before the invention of cellular phones. And I don't think the author is taking crystal meth. The whole concept of long distance charges and other ****ery in phone technology is so 20th century. I use the phone function on my Blackberry less and less, relying on things like Google Talk and BBM to avoid calling people. Someday we might just be able to call each other with out phones over wireless internet a la Skype style. They are already testing Super Wifi technology in the US. Phone numbers aren't going anywhere yet, but the writing is on the wall for it.

[madald2]

I don't think phone numbers will ever die but it will become more of an option than the primary way for a person go be communicated with by phone. In any event, number portability is coming to Jamaica soon so you can take your number with you, plus gsm technology already allows us some amount of flexibility.

I know persons who use their iPod touch as their primary communication device. They have no cellphone. Problems when them in country areas tho, lol.

[sk@tta]

I probably can see the death of Phone numbers in the future. A few years from now every device will and can be connected to the internet. Once u have an internet connection then who needs phone numbers to communicate with someone.

For example in my everyday life... before i dial someones number in try to send them an IM

[Original_Jamaican]

I sincerely doubt Jamaica's crime problems can be blamed on Blackberries, our culture has suffered from excessive violence long before the invention of cellular phones. And I don't think the author is taking crystal meth. The whole concept of long distance charges and other ****ery in phone technology is so 20th century. I use the phone function on my Blackberry less and less, relying on things like Google Talk and BBM to avoid calling people. Someday we might just be able to call each other with out phones over wireless internet a la Skype style. They are already testing Super Wifi technology in the US. Phone numbers aren't going anywhere yet, but the writing is on the wall for it.

Don't forget that Super Wifi is here in Jamaica. The head office is in Portland. The bad part is that it's not available for Kingston as yet...though they say they are working on it.