Email as a model for future mobile phone service

What if your phone wasn’t tied to your phone number?

I think the email model is a possible way to evolve voice telephony and make it more useful and enduring, especially in mobile. You could have multiple "lines" from multiple service providers, on a single device. At one level they would interoperate perfectly, but they might have separate special features or business models, in the same way that Gmail is different to Hosted Exchange or assorted others.

The author, Dean Bubley, knows a thing or two about phone networks and carriers. So this isn’t the wild dreaming of someone who doesn’t understand what’s technically feasible.

Today I might get a call on my mobile to my phone number, one of several Tropo numbers that redirect to my phone number, Skype, a SIP softphone, and probably something I’ve forgotten about. One device, multiple entry points. Messages are the same way. SMS, iMessage, Whatsapp, Skype... they all arrive on my phone.

We’re already doing this today, just the carriers haven’t caught on. If I want two AT&T numbers and a Verizon number, I need three phones. But I think this is coming, and fast.