We dole these addresses out to our friends, family, and business associates
depending on the need.
But as voice services become part of the same service that delivers us our e-mail, it
will quickly begin to make telephone numbers obsolete. After all, if I could have one
service that took care of everything I use for communications, why have different forms
of identity for each one? Why use an impersonal number when I could use the more
personal identifier found in our e-mail addresses?
Also consider that the very technologies designed to deliver our e-mail are now being
adapted to deliver our voice, video, and messaging. The very systems that form
these networks operate differently than the telephone switches that rely on telephone
numbers.
To better understand this shift in identities, it may help to better understand where
telephone numbers came from and how they were used in the earliest days of telephony.
In days far gone, when one wanted to connect to a neighbor or family member using the
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telephone, all they needed was to pick up the phone, wait for an operator, and give the
name of the person they wanted to connect with.
But as communities grew, and the cord boards used to connect calls were replaced
with switches, numbers began to replace our names. The numbers were used to drive
electromechanical relays that literally connected the wires from one home to another
across the entire network.
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