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By Fletch — ENP
The telephone is an amazing device. In fact, it’s a technology friend we’ve all grown up with in one form or another. From the heavy black rotary Bakelite bricks our grandparents used to the ‘Harvest Gold’ or ‘Avocado Green’ kitchen wall phone (with the 25-foot coiled cord), right up to the pocket supercomputers we all carry today, the core premise of these devices hasn’t changed much:
- Pick up; 2.) Dial; 3.)Talk.
But if you ever had the joy of living on a neighborhood party line, you know that privacy was optional, and eavesdropping was an after-dinner sport. For inbound calls, each home on the shared line loop was defined by a pattern of rings — two shorts and a long for the Smiths, maybe one long and a short for the Joneses. It was primitive, sure, but it, along with a unique phone number, was the first form of a network identity for many of us. Local telephone companies assigned each subscriber’s residence a 10-digit, nationally unique numeric destination. These numbers, geographically compliant with the nationally coordinated North American Numbering Plan, provided not only our communications identity, but could also be correlated to location.
And ever since, we’ve remained wedged into this architecture of communications identity.
Ten Digits of Tradition
Somewhere along the way, we decided those ten digits were sacred. The telephone number became our badge of identity — our social security number for communication. Forget passports and driver’s licenses; your phone number became you.
Except it’s not you. It’s a routing label for communication. A leftover artifact from when operators wore headsets the size of watermelons and plugged cables into blinking holes on a switchboard.
Meanwhile, our world has gone full-blown Star Trek. We have AI in our pockets, cars that text you before they break down, and refrigerators that want to be your dietitian. All of this technology is interconnected with intelligent digital networks, universal WIFI over much of the populated space, and global positioning satellite systems that are orbiting the planet 22,236 miles in space. Yet, when calling for help in an emergency, we’re mostly relying on a 1940s numbering plan optimized for rotary dials. (NYC had the most numbers, so it got the 212 area code as this was the shortest distance on a rotary dial in the original North American number plan)
While this was functional, today, it’s like trying to stream Netflix through a Victrola.
A Number by Any Other Name
We live in a world where nearly every device communicates.
Phones, cameras, sensors, drones, even doorbells.
Each can transmit audio, video, text, and data faster than you can say “buffering.” So why are we still tethering identity to ten digits instead of to something the network can actually utilize and trust?
When your smartwatch detects a drop in your heart rate, your car senses an impact, or your building triggers a fire alarm, none of these systems require a phone number to communicate. They require verified, authenticated, and location-aware credentials that confirm their identity and location when sending information.
Numbers? Today, these are simply remnants of noise from days past.
Time for a New Identity
So here we are, still treating the phone number like a sacred cow, grazing in a field of technology irrelevance. Now is the time to rethink identity at the network level.
We no longer need routing “numbers.” We need routable digital credentials. Credentials that can be trusted, verified, and authenticated, as well as being location-aware. If for nothing else, Public Safety needs thi s to respond to emergency requests with confidence.
And here’s where the evolution gets interesting:
The same organizations that have managed the North American Numbering Plan for decades — doling out those sacred digits like communion wafers — could play a vital new role. Instead of assigning phone numbers, they could become the stewards of digital certificates — secure credentials that verify the identity of users, devices, or systems participating in next-generation networks.
Think of it as turning the old numbering plan administrators into digital trust managers. They’d issue, validate, and distribute credentials that are cryptographically verifiable and geographically contextual. That means a PSAP, a hospital, or even a smart traffic controller could know — not just guess — who’s on the other end of a digital “call.” It’s not about dialing anymore. It’s about trusting the signal that arrives.
The Disconnect We Need
The phone number served its purpose. It got us connected. But it’s time for it to retire — maybe move to Florida, hang out with some old rotary dials, and reminisce about the good old days of busy signals and dial tones.
Modern communication isn’t about digits. It’s about identity, authenticity, and integrity. In a network built for intelligent devices and human-machine collaboration, trust beats tradition every time. So maybe it’s time to say it out loud:
We no longer need phone numbers. We need digital credentials — and a network that knows who’s calling before it rings.
Fletch is a NENA-certified ENP and public safety technology advocate who’s been working to modernize emergency communications for over four decades. You can find more of his snark and insight at Fletch.tv, Fletch911.com, and 911tips.com.
The World According to Fletch . . . 