The future of phone numbers

You buy your computer from Dell, your Internet access from Verizon, and your e-mail address from Google (at a 100% discount off the MSRP!). So why is it that when you buy a cellular phone you get the phone number, the smartphone, and the subscription service from the same company, Verizon?

Google has recently rolled out a new service called Google Voice. The service gives you a free phone number that will ring on any or all phones that you set it to ring. You can use the number to send and receive text messages, and you can listen to your voicemail online. This is the greatest step in the direction of number portability since the 2003 federal court ruling that forces carriers to let consumers take their numbers with them when they switch carriers. While the ruling did break the hold carriers had on phone numbers, consumers who cancel service completely without switching to another carrier will lose their phone number for good.

I like to think of phone numbers as identification codes that should be issued for free like e-mail addresses. With the convergence of cellular phones, VoIP phones, and e-mail, I see phone numbers becoming passe, replaced by e-mail addresses. Yes, in order to make a call someone you will enter their e-mail address, not a 10-digit phone number, or you will just simply shortcut the process by pulling up their name in your address book.

In 5 years from now, or sooner, when you buy a cellular phone you will be asked, "Would you like a phone number with that?".