Ask HN: Why isn't mobile phone service restricted to emergency numbers only?
The internet via cellular data could be used for all non-emergency phone calls.
Why isn't this done?
Why isn't this done?
The transition to IP calling has been happening since 2012 and virtually all modern phones currently support it - no need to put additional restrictions in place for the edge cases where VoLTE et al don't work.
https://www.nanpa.com/reports/npa-reports
I guess IPv4 numbers have a similar number of digits and support a similar range, but attempts to make them location-portable have failed
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_IP
IPv6 numbers are way too long. I guess you could have something DNS based but why?
And (my understanding) either out in the boonies, or when services are running in some degraded modes, that would cut off voice service to non-emergency numbers.
I have many email addresses and a few phone numbers. Using an email address instead of a phone number would add friction for people typing my "phone number" into their phone, and using a phone number instead of an email address would be a loss of clarity for no gain. I see unifying the two identifiers as being the inelegant thing.
The question is: what would be the benefit of restricting the utility of phone service in the way you propose? It looks to me like there's nothing to be gained by doing that.