A coalition of telephone companies, including Verizon, AT&T, Qwest, and SBC announced today a new numbering scheme for phone numbers in the USA. The new phone numbers will be in the format XXX-XXX-XXX-XXX-XXX-XXX-XXXXX. “We want to make sure we won’t run out,” said H.W. Jablome, CIO of Qwest Atlantic.
Some users, however, are not impressed with the move. Barbra Connors of WREK-FM, a participant in the pilot program, commented, “I don’t know how they expect our callers to remember our new proposed phone number. Hell, I don’t even remember it, I have to keep it on a sticky note on my monitor.” Connors hopes that the telephone companies will reconsider the length of the numbers before finalizing the standard.
But Jablome defends the decision. “We concluded that a 23 digit address space is a good length based on many technical factors. When every molecule in the solar system has a telephone number, you’ll be thankful we planned ahead! Besides, no one will actually have to remember these numbers, everyone can use our directory services, which will be at a new low rate of 35 cents per call.” Jablome reports that some early adopters are using 23-to-10 tunneling services, but it may be several years before core systems are upgraded to the new scheme.
He adds that the need to use the “nasty hack” of a “PBX”, (private branch exchange) will be obviated by the new system. PBX is a technology that allows a sort of “network address translation”, translating a handful of phone numbers into extensions. “PBX is hack that has cost us dearly in network trouble in exchange for rescuing us from phone number exhaustion. I personally have spent hundreds of hours troubleshooting network problems ultimately traced to PBX failures,” said Jablome.
Some users like the idea, however. Li Hung, a 35 year old game tester, had this to say, “I personally like having 2^32 phone numbers allocated to me. It’s comforting to know that if I need the room to expand, it’s right there. Between my mom’s phone and my dad’s phone, and my 14.4k modem line, we already have 3 lines in the house.” Hung runs a 23-to-10 gateway to allow him to test the service before mainstream implementation is complete.
The telephone company alliance predicts a full roll-out of 23-digit technology by late 2008.
Reuters is running stories about an “economic crisis” in Second Life. The basis for this is the announcement of a platform-wide ban on gambling, a minor insider theft ($10,000 US) at a “in world stock exchange”, and a bank run on a major “in world bank” (which handles about 150 million in L$ deposits). The result of this, they claim, is that the in world “spending” decreased from $2 million US to about $1.1 million US per 24 hour period, signaling an “economic crisis”. This article examines why you shouldn’t really worry.