Gloger.es@XEROX.COM.UUCP (03/03/87)
Maybe I missed something, but I think this whole discussion about the sufficiency of 6-and-1/2 or 7 or even 8 decimal digits' worth of phone numbers is way short of the mark. Assuming continuing competition and deregulation in the telecom industry, I personally will have at least a few dozen phone "lines" or "numbers:" one publicly listed number, one number for close friends to call me, one for my closest friend, one number for other acquaintances, one for RSVP's to my party invitation for my party on March 28, one number for me to call in to my home phone-answering machine, one for me to call my remotely-programmable oven to start dinner cooking, etc., etc. This wil be similar to how large companies presently use internal mail stops or mail codes or functional titles (e.g. "Free Brownie Recipe / Room 1422 / ABC Corp. / 1234 Maple St. / St. Louis ..."), preprended to Post Office addresses, to route snail-mail to a higher resolution than is provided by the Post Office. Formally, in the case of the phone numbers, this consists simply of encoding additional info. into the phone number, beyond the current practice of assigning one number to one person at one location. For phone numbers, it would be logical to allow the local phone company and their subscribers to agree to append an indefinite number of additional digits to the phone number, as many as the subscriber cared to use. Technology has been available for several years already which would make this trivial to do at an insignificant cost per additional line - just as today the actual cost of an adding an electronic mailbox to your local host computer is insignificant. Political regulation is the only thing standing in the way. /Paul Gloger