Re: [FWD] Introduction of new FWD "experimental" service - FWD Vanity Numbers

["Stastny Richard" <]

Hi Jeff,
 
I fully agree with you that FWD is the ideal playground to experiment
and try out new ideas and I also appreciate this. I have learned a lot
by thinking about this type of service and got ideas how to do things
or not to do things. The advantage of FWD is that is is free and therefore
may change or revise things if they do not work out quite easily.
 
On the other hand, if one sets up a real (commercial) service along
the lines you experiment with and is selling numbers (ar aliases or whatever)
and services to customers, he has to do the things right in the first place, because
any later change will cause a lot of hazzle with the customers.
 
We have seen this with numbering plan changes in the PSTN and regardless
if you align your numbering plan with E.164 or create a new one (as suggested
by some members here), finally all
similar systems will have to work together in a consistent way and then
any change will again cause troubles with customers, because they will
rely on it in various way (consider changing all numbers in your directory).
 
As we have also seen in the PSTN, you cannot be perfect from the beginning
and avoid numbering plan changes, but you should try to keep them to a minimum.
 
Using numbers you should not forget that this is an inverted tree with not many
choices, so if you use up one number of the first digit it is gone, reducing your numberspace
regardless how big it is by 10%.
 
best regards
Richard

	-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- 
	Von: Jeff Pulver [
	    
	    
] 
	Gesendet: Fr 08.08.2003 22:58 
	An: FWD@localhost 
	Cc: 
	Betreff: Re: [FWD] Introduction of new FWD "experimental" service - FWD Vanity Numbers
	
	

	Hi Richard,
	
	I'm late to this thread and just catching up with the email but please
	remember that with FWD and SIP a number is just a string. FWD is
	just software based running on a few Linux servers and we are nothing more
	than a real-time reflection of the community of people who are using FWD.
	
	There isn't any intent on our side to map the 393 + [6-26] digits to
	anything else other than someone's assigned internal FWD number. That's
	the whole point about this new "experimental" service. We have no plans
	to nor need to ever worry about overlays, numbering plans, etc. I'm
	looking towards the future rather than being constrained by what others
	would consider legacy thinking.
	
	My hope is that fundementally FWD will continue to evolve without regard
	to the legacy of the past but rather the potential brillance of our
	future. Please remember that inventions are nothing more than "bad
	mistakes" and my hope is that we will still continue to stumble across
	the future learning, making mistakes, innovating and for some, inventing
	the future of communications one step and day at a time.
	
	The first FWD number assigned was 10000. We have been mosting incrementing
	by 1 since November 11, 2002 and there are currently 44,465 subscribers
	in 150+ countries who use FWD as a communciations network. The FWD numbers
	that are in production today are 5 and 6 digit numbers and in the future I
	expect that we will move formally to 7 digits (or more) as we continue to
	grow.
	
	For those people who wanted to have the flexiability of being able to
	create their own numbers, we figured why not provide the platform
	to do so? The 393 prefix was added by us as a way to internally support
	our own "legacy" numbering plan. Being on the internet and being around
	creative people, I see no harm in encouraging people be as creative as
	possible.
	
	This said, and because I always thought it would be cool to be able to be
	reached as jeff.pulver@localhost we also opened the door to support
	text aliasing to assigned FWD numbers. I'm not sure where a SIP URI really
	fits into any number plan either...and in any case, the "core" FWD number
	that these aliases internally maps to right now is still only 5 or 6
	digits so in reality I don't see anything being "broken."
	
	We are trying to be a little innovative with the introduction of * and **
	dialing when placing calls outside of the FWD network.
	
	Anyway, let's see how this evolves. I expect this to continue to be fun,
	even if some people don't always understand or get the vision. Earlier
	today I received  an interesting email from Sprint claiming that our FWD
	dialing code of 1010333 which was used to dial from FWD to deltathree
	iConnect Here customers was of concern to Sprint since they are the
	owners of 1010333.
	
	While I tried to explain that 1010333 was internal to FWD, rather than
	fighting, we removed the reference to 1010333 from our website and going
	forward people who wish to dial into ICH will have to dial **333 instead.
	(more on this later.)
	
	Best regards,
	
	 Jeff