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Phone numbers: Why does BT care about them?

BT has finally announced the launch - to only 400 users! - of its Fusion VoIP phone service, which uses a cellular handset. One of the interesting features of this phone is that you can have whatever phone number you like for it. That's nice! - but why is BT going to the bother of providing this?

The short answer is that without Fusion, the day of the phone number is almost certainly over.

I can make absolutely free calls to any part of the world, and so can you; all you need is to be a broadband Internet user. Take your pick: Free World Dialup, Gossiptel, Skype, Yahoo Messenger, MSN, or any Asterisk based switchboard. The only problem is, there's no way of switching between them yet.

So, if I have a Skype identity (as I have) of gkewney and you have a Skype identity, you can call me; we'll speak as long as our batteries last, without adding a single penny to our phone bill. Similarly, two MSN messenger users can chat endlessly - two FWD users, two Gossiptel users... free.

But if I want to call you from Skype and you're an MSN user, or an Asterisk SIP user, or a Yahoo user, or even a plain old telephone system subscriber, then we have to know the phone number.

Phone numbers cost money. They are a licence to make money, and the world's telcos control who gets a licence.

Skype will give you a phone number; mine is a California area code. Dial that number from any phone, and my Skype client will pop up and accept the call. But it's not free: it costs Skype money to "terminate" the incoming call from the network. Same applies to any other two non-PSTN subscribers; free as long as they call within their own network, but you need a phone number otherwise.

I know people who sell SIP phone services to Brits who go on holiday in Spain or France. These holidaymakers want to watch standard satellite TV - so they take their set top box card with them. But before it will register with the satellite, the box will call home to make sure you're worth subsidising; it wants you to be in the geographic area where adverts are being paid for. So you tell the card your SIP phone number - Sky phones that number, and your SIP phone rings - and you enter the PIN. Bingo: free TV. If it's a Spanish phone number, however, you're blacklisted. No free TV for you! So the SIP provider makes sure it's a number with a UK +44 code.

But actually, you and I, the subscribers, don't want a phone number. Why would we? If you change jobs, you have to change your number. If you move house, you can move the number, these days - but it's often a pain. And nobody can remember it.

Worse still, it can become polluted. Telemarketing people can make your life miserable. If you're a paediatrician, there's a risk that someone nearby will decide this is a synonym of "paedophile" and will subject you to poison calls.

What the world is moving towards, is a system where you have an identity, but assign that ID through something like Domain Name Service.

When that happens, the major way for telcos to charge us money, will evaporate. If you can be called as your identity, that identity will, eventually, work over Instant Messenger, text message, phone, or Internet chat. Filter out the spam the same way you do on any other PC system.

By providing Fusion, BT has given us a reason to hang on to our phone number identity for a couple of years longer; and if they can do that, then we will be obliged to pay them 15p an hour for a five minute phone call which should be free.