Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'

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Logical country prefixes
Lots of Phone Numbers
Mobile Network ID Number
No more Phone Numbers, rather Phone "Words"
One Phone Number
One-time-use phone number
Pentatrigesimal digits for phone numbers
Phone Color
Phone Number Cartridge
...

public:communication: telephone: number

One Phone Number

One phone number for everyone

(+5, -1)

[vote for,
against]

This idea occurs to me every time there is a news story about a new area code and running out of phone numbers. Why not give everyone one main phone that can be connected/forwarded to work, cell phone, fax, beepter, etc. With caller id and call blocking you could decide who gets access to what devices.

—	jgsearls, Aug 16 2000

ZDNet link http://www.zdnet.co...738,2608725,00.html
Please please please use "link" for links! [egnor, Aug 16 2000]

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Annotation:

I saw this on AnchorDesk (ZDNet e-mailing) the other day.

A bit of searching found it:

http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2608725,00.html

—	Thing 1, Aug 17 2000

Any question that begins 'Why don't they...' is almost always answered by 'Money'. I don't want a cellphone. I don't want a beeper. <Or a 'beepter'. <grin>> I most especially don't want to pay extra for those services I'm not going to use. OR for other people to use them, in the form of higher fees for what I DO use.

I think that the new area codes should be overlaid, rather than making each area smaller and inconvienencing everyone with having to change area codes. One area being, say '123' and '456', anybody who gets a new phone number gets the second, and they are free calls between them.

—	StarChaser, Aug 17 2000

They are beginning to overlay new area codes, at least where I am. The phone company is telling people to stop thinking of them as "area" codes...

—	egnor, Aug 17 2000

Certainly New York City is getting very mixed up, area code-wise. 212, 646, and 917 all refer to Manhattan, more or less, but 212 is all landline, 646 is split, and 917 is almost all mobile. Then 718 is the outer bouroughs, with mobile service in 646 and 917 as well. Luckily, they're all local calls. (StarChaser: I wish they were free)

—	mcfrank, Aug 18 2000

'Free' as in 'not paying for each seperate call'. In my area at least, all local calls are paid for by the usual monthly bill for phone service.

—	StarChaser, Aug 19 2000

Having one "master" phone number that reaches whatever phone you're near at the time was the original idea behind 500 and 700 numbers. I think you can still get them from AT&T and other long distance carriers. They aren't cheap (to the caller), costing a bit more than a regular long distance call. (On the other had, sometimes I'd *prefer* a phone number that's expensive for people to call).

—	mab, Aug 19 2000

I work for a major Canadian telecommunications company, and we are testing a service called Onebox. It's almost exactly as described above, except it's also a unified messaging service for email, voice mail, and fax- all from the same number. I imagine several other telecom companies will be introducing a similar service quite soon.

The idea is now in the 'almost completely baked' category, I guess.

—	BigThor, Aug 31 2000

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