numbers

Phone numbers, mobile Vs fixed, geographic Vs non-geographic…most national numbering plans, devised more than 30 years ago, are unlikely to be adequate to cope with new trends and developments. Location information of geographic numbers is a legacy from the Plain Old Telephony Services, when habits were not what they are today. In recent years, people have become more flexible, ready and wanting to move and travel at any time. Mobile phones are slowly overtaking fixed phones and calling your plumber happens more often than not on his mobile phone, whilst a call given to a specific number could be forwarded to anywhere.

Numbers, including geographic numbers, should be eligible to be allocated to any  provider or user, and be used by end users outside of the traditional telephone zones or other boundaries, including on a trans-national basis within the EU. VON Europe supports the view that geographical numbers are most suitable to open up VoIP to the mass consumers as consumers are highly familiar with those types of numbers and end user tariffs are the most transparent (or at least not less transparent than other types of numbers).