stoltz@eng.sun.com (Ben Stoltz) (01/25/91)
I would like to see some discussion on "Person Numbers". In the brave new world, people may have the option of calling me instead of my phone. Or, they may want to call my fax, even if that means the fax in the hotel where I am staying instead of the fax machine where I work. To make this scheme work, the calling party dials a person number. I would like the person number to use a different dialing plan than the North American dialing plan (1-AAA-XXX-XXXX). Maybe 012-PPPPPPPPPP? New dial plan, everybody gets a whole bunch of phone numbers. To differentiate different addressable things, such as fax or answering machine or me, a sub-address is also required: 012-PPPPPPPPPP,SS. How does a person specify the subaddress? If you were going to implement this today, without TPC help, how would you do it? Maybe dial an 800 number computer answers dial more digits computer resolves number to a NA dial plan number and then computer transfers the call. Does ISDN make any of this any easier? How does the computer know where to route calls? Ben Stoltz stoltz@Eng.Sun.COM Sun Microsystems, Inc. (415)336-1733
woody@ucscb.ucsc.edu (Bill Woodcock) (01/30/91)
stoltz@eng.sun.com (Ben Stoltz) Writes: > I would like to see some discussion on "Person Numbers". > In the brave new world, people may have the option of > calling me instead of my phone. Or, they may want to call my > fax, even if that means the fax in the hotel where I am > staying instead of the fax machine where I work. > If you were going to implement this today, without TPC help, > how would you do it? It's my understanding that BellCore has been working on this for a couple of years now, with the eventual goal of being able to issue everyone a single phone number when they sign up for service the first time, much like getting a Social Security number. I've seen articles about the project in a couple of rags recently. Central computers would then (in an effort to be both "smart" and "user friendly") keep track of things like where your cellular was roaming and where the last outgoing call you'd made was placed from. In addition, you can keep a schedule on file with the telco: "homephone 6pm-7am; cellular 7am-8am; workphone 8am-5pm; cellular 5pm-6pm" or something like that. They also mentioned a feature that I've been looking for for a LONG time: having All your phones in at all locations ring until ANY ONE of them is picked up. bill.woodcock.iv woody@ucscb.ucsc.edu 2355.virginia.st berkeley.california 94709.1315