3 ms·
North American Numbering Plan Expansion
- gumby 9y agoInterestingly this topic was in the very first issue of the storied ARPANET Telecom Digest back in 1979 or 1980. Now, 40 years later, I wonder if all this matters any more. I make very few calls through the POTS; most voice calls I make are through FaceTime, WhatsApp and the like. In addition, the requirement that each endpoint have a unique identifier is a billing matter more than anything else these days. A big business can have as many outgoing calls as it wants each with the same ANI pointing at the "main" phone number and should be able to receive as many incoming phone calls at that "main" number just as a web server could. The changes to SS7 to support this would be a lot cheaper than the cost of expanding the digit space.
- colanderman 9y agoIf I'm reading this correctly, the plan is essentially to add one bit of address space? (11 or 00 after the first three digits.) How much time will this buy? Is there a longer-term plan to use these two digits for more possibilities after the transition period?