Chiming in a bit late, but I agree, numbers do not count anymore.

a) most people don't remember any number at all. It's saved on the phone and you dial the name. It's of course also based on the "all inclusive" cost models

b) businesses run on VoIP Systems, which are integrated with any form of address book, presence and instant messaging. Again you dial people, not numbers. Heck, when you use Skype4Business or Jabber or Circuit or whatever, most of the time you do not even dial a number, but a sip address. If federation between the systems is in place, this goes even beyond the business boundaries

c) your business number is portable and can be used on any voip/sip enabled, connected, smart device. I for example wouldn't even need any mobile number if it wouldn't come with my mobile plan. Calls to friends are made via Whatsapp or Facebook messenger or more rarely Skype. No numbers there. Skype4Business is on my mobile, so my Business number is on my mobile. And I'm available on that number anywhere in the world where I have Internet connectivity on my phone. But I wouldn't need it either, as I could receive calls via my SIP identifier (my business email address). No number needed.

So my view is: phone numbers are legacy. Back in Switzerland they did a massive haul over of many businesses in the last 5 years, introducing modern SIP based Communication (Skype4Business, Circuit, Jabber, Mitel) and realised, that phone numbers where really just there for people without those systems to reach them. So what they did, is to move mostly over to the 058 block, which is geo-independent and derived from a premium number block (there was some discussion about costs which got solved by the incumbent who owned the block by eliminating the premium in the end). The rationale for that was, that nobody would know about the real location of a number anyway, and geo-dependent numbers would actually make a relocation of a business unit to another region quite confusing (which over there happens more often than here in Australia because of much smaller regions).

It messes with emergency services though, which usually rely on the geographic identifier of the phone though.

That's where e112 and friends come into play then.

Cheers,

Mat


On 1/05/2018 8:56 AM, Mark Tees wrote:
I am kind of wondering if we can get to a stage of complete number virtualisation. Mainly so when I’m overseas I can more easily direct actual inbound SMS how I see fit. Have also had the same number for almost 10 years.  At present I hook up an Android phone and send/receive SMS via email or forwarding with normal call diversion.

Ideally, I could port my number to a virtual mobile service and receive calls via SIP of whatever then receive SMS via API calls or email.

From the carrier VOIP side it would be awesome if we could receive SMS in a similar fashion as SIP.


On Tue, 1 May 2018 at 07:36, Matthew Moyle-Croft <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:

    Previous thread about fake caller ID made me think about what
    phone numbers mean in the Australian context.

    Historically we’ve had numbers that are geo based for landlines
    (02, 03, 08 etc) and other numbers that delineate the cost to call
    (eg. 04 for mobile, 13/18 for fixed cost non-geo or free, 1900 for
    “premium” etc). But we’re now looking to a future where a range of
    factors are meaning that the differentiation is less meaningful.

    A _lot_ of people are moving, because of generation change, NBN,
    etc to only have a mobile number. Many people are on mobile or
    “fixed line” plans where calls are all-inclusive so knowing the
    cost of a call from the phone number is pretty much irrelevant. My
    parents and some of my grandparents (yes I still have them)
    basically use mobile only and don’t answer home phones *because*
    of the scams on home phones!  I don’t actually know what my
    brothers and sisters home phone numbers are.

    There’s still a historic “interconnect” charging model/market
    between telcos that I suspect is just as painful as when I last
    looked at it.

    What is the future for voice and calls in Australia? Do
    geo-numbers make sense? Why shouldn’t I be able to have an 08 xxxx
    xxxx number as my mobile number? (I know the back-end
    charging/porting reasons, but we’re looking forward not backward
    here).

    Even calling internationally - voice calls now between countries
    are generally so awful to use (delay, crappy audio etc) that even
    for business calls I use things like
    Facetime/Facebook/WhatsApp/Hangout calls where the voice is so
    good and low delay I can’t tell where the other person is from.

    I suspect nothing much will change and that’s primarily because
    the major telcos with mobile networks want to continue to make
    money out of charging each other for calls, but, even that I
    suspect will all fade away.

    We do get attached to phone numbers - my Australian mobile is one
    from the dawn of GSM in Australia and I’ve had it now for more
    than 20 years and even though I don’t live in Australia at the
    moment I keep it running on a long life prepaid! So, don’t think I
    lack sentiment here.

    MMC

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Regards,

Mark L. Tees


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