Out of Phone Numbers? Add Digits

Published: 19 February 2003 y., Wednesday
Verizon, Qwest and BellSouth have urged the Industry Numbering Commission, which regulates the distribution of telephone numbers in North America, to "be proactive" about what the phone companies see as the newest threat to the dwindling supply of available phone numbers: voiceover Internet protocol, or VoIP. Originally a hacker's tool to make free long distance calls, VoIP is set to emerge as the next big thing in commercial telecom. Heather Tinsley of Telegeography estimates that as much as 10 percent of all international voice traffic was carried over IP in 2002. The phone companies insist that VoIP has the potential to eat up 10-digit numbers faster than cell phones, fax machines and pagers did. This would hasten the day North America runs out of unique phone numbers, requiring an entirely new numbering scheme. "INC's analysis says that moving to the next numbering scheme needs to begin 10 years before all numbers are exhausted," said Randy Sanders, director of regulatory and external affairs at BellSouth. "I'm trying to raise awareness of this." A few years ago, number exhaust was projected to happen in 2009. With the collapse of the telecom boom, however, that date was pushed to 2031. Approximately 1.3 billion telephone numbers currently remain available.
Šaltinis: wired.com
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.

Facebook Comments

New comment


Captcha

Associated articles

Intel To Beef Up Facilities in Ireland

Intel envisions leading-edge chip production to begin at Fab 24-2, its new facility in Ireland, by 2006 more »

Transmeta Joins Microsoft's 'NX' Club

Transmeta will add a new antivirus technology standard to its next round of low-power chips, the company said Monday more »

Welcome summer with the new “Skynet” entertainment

There is plenty of entertainment on „Skynet“ network that are designed for the users of the inside network. One can watch stereo quality video recordings and listen to Internet radio with the help of the high-speed Internet. And there are more... more »

Net portal wars

Rivals Yahoo and Google launched assaults on each other's territory as the fight for the Internet search dollars heated up more »

The deal

Ruling delayed on huge Microsoft attorney fees more »

Diebold finds e-voting business stormy

After the Florida punch-card debacle hurt the credibility of the last presidential election, ATM maker Diebold decided it should expand into electronic voting more »

EC opens ears on e-money directive

The European Commission has opened a consultation period on its controversial "e-money" directive more »

Ready, Willing & Able

Fujitsu Siemens Computers plans to considerably strengthen its position on the Polish information technology market by taking advantage of opportunities offered by Poland's accession to the European Union more »

Estonia embraces web without wires

There is a new revolution brewing along Tallinn's ancient stone streets and inside its charming Gothic buildings. more »

Web services find way to devices

New Web services technology makes it easier for users to connect devices over a network more »