> The telephone number situation in the United States has been one of
> continual crisis for years, because of rapid growth in use (in part because
> of Internet access!). The area served by a given "area code" would be
split
> into smaller areas with multiple area codes; these days, those areas aren't
> necessarily even contiguous. Moving from seven-digit to (effectively)
> ten-digit numbers was difficult, if not impossible, for some older
> equipment; sometimes a kludge could be developed to allow the old equipment
> to be used for a few more months or years, but often as not new equipment
> was required, at considerable cost. It was difficult for end users,
too: in
> addition to the confusion everyone suffered during the transition (I still
> get scads of wrong numbers on my cellphone, because people forget the area
> code is needed), businesses had to spend great sums of money to revise
their
> public appearance (advertising, letterhead, etc.).
>
> And, often as not, we'd do it all over again a few months later.
We've now got number portability. I've got a choice of local exchange
carriers. I can get service from Bell Atlantic or from MediaOne. I can
keep the same phone number when I move from one to the other.
FYI And by 2002 you will be able to port your number from your land line
phone service to your cell phone as well...that is called "service
portability".
From the reports I read, this was implemented by mapping phone numbers
to some other tag (which the user doesn't see) which is used to get the
calls to the proper carrier and ultimately to the proper user.
Yep ...essentially phone numbers are nothing more than names to the IN.
FYI there is a ID on how the Number Portability system works and there
have been recent FCC rulings on Number Conservation and Pooling which
direct teleco's not to hoard phone numbers or else they will be taken away.
It is a system that has worked remarkably well and is rapidly being adopted
my many other countries as well.
A URL for this Internet-Draft is:
http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-foster-e164-gstn-np-00.txt
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Richard Shockey
Shockey Consulting LLC
8045 Big Bend Blvd. Suite 110
St. Louis, MO 63119
Voice 314.918.9020
eFAX Fax to EMail 815.333.1237 (Preferred for Fax)
INTERNET Mail & IFAX : rshockey(_at_)ix(_dot_)netcom(_dot_)com
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MediaGate iPost VoiceMail and Fax 800.260.4464
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