[Linux-aus] NBN discussion

[David Newall]

Might I suggest that discussions about Skype, or products with other 
proprietary protocols, are not very interesting, particularly on a 
mailing-list devoted to open-systems?

What is interesting, at least I think so, is to look at how telephony is 
changing in the connected world.  I say that concerns about porting 
telephone numbers misses an underlying truth: telephone-numbers are a 
legacy attribute.  It seems to me that SIP is the preferred (open) 
protocol for VoIP, so rather than ask how to keep your old number, ask 
instead how people on legacy equipment (i.e. PSTN) can call your new, 
global, operator- and geography-independent SIP URL, which looks rather 
like an email address.  For calls originating via IP, the reverse issue, 
how to access a legacy number, has already been solved by any number of 
companies who provide PSTN portals.

I realise that legacy support is now a critical question, but don't 
limit your horizon by assuming the shackles of an obsolete, 
E.164-compliant number.  It's the old way of contacting people and every 
day it's relevance diminishes.

To give this a slightly different perspective, the same problem with Fax 
has been largely side-stepped by removing the fax-modem from the 
equation and sending scanned-input via email.

David