Most of all, I’ve been getting back to my roots. My noble, transcendent roots which I planted at Burning Man that time I attended so I could get more Instagram followers.

When was the last time you, cog in the machine, meditated? Let me explain what it feels like. I meditated last night for three minutes and kept my phone off for the first two. A world without blip blip blip notifications every second splashing hot juicy dopamine into my brain stem so I can continue ignoring the audacities of this crumbling world. I actually had to be medicated after!

I’m thankful to get the chance to catch up on some books like The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I refolded some socks in my drawer and threw out my boyfriend’s gross old sweater. Wow! I didn’t realize how much clutter in my home cluttered my view of how amazing and post-modern minimalist I am–I truly need nothing except constant attention.

I’ve been finding time to see old friends who I haven’t seen in years, by that I mean I’ve been taking coffee meeting after coffee meeting alone at Tarallucci e Vino, breathing heavily. I’ve also reached out to my family, forwarding them chain emails to break the curse.

I heard sensory deprivation tanks are trending and for only $300 an hour I could visit one and tweet about it. So I signed up and wow! Time alone with my thoughts in a dark quiet room, confronting myself…my hideous, hideous self…wow! Wow! When was the last time you had a thought? I can’t imagine. Really I can’t–I stopped being able to imagine other people’s inner dialogue around the time Facebook introduced the tagged photo feature.

You probably never do this kind of stuff because you’re busy having a family or hobbies–but I do. I’m practically Steve Jobs, right? Visionary. It’s not my fault that I’m too intense for hobbies like, ‘playing with a dog’ or ‘volunteering.’ Really though. Steve Jobs and I once used the same brand of $700 cushion for meditation. I had to throw mine out after though. It didn’t spark joy. Do you hear that journalists? Me. Outlier renegade Buddhist Daoist whatever-fits-ism-ist. Totally serene and exacting but with a bit of a temper hehehe get it? I’m Steve Jobs–passion is hard to control! That’s why I get in padded rooms I mean sensory tanks sometimes!!

It’s been eye-opening to live in this new chapter of me, who is happy with this chance to create more space for peace in her life and is practicing all the perfect tropes to align herself for a comeback. Also, I’ve lost weight.

I’m pleased to announce we’ve been acquired by AirBnB by that I mean AirBnBing my apartment is how I’ve begun to pay back my debt and we’ve totally shut down but thank God for our graceful exit. AirBnB believes in our mission and we believe in theirs. The teams are in alignment and our leadership agrees that we’ll pay the fees incurred by booking guests through their site.

I’ll be taking some time off for personal reflection before I get back to work. AirBnB wants me so rested for my next chapter they’ve even notified me that if I try to show up at their office again, I’ll be escorted out.

Our team could not have done this without despair and desperation. I’m so thankful for our endless motivation to run ourselves into the ground. The entire team shares with me this ecstasy of agony and opportunity for inverse job growth.

As a female CEO (or as I like to call it, “SHE-E-O” since every decision I make good or bad is viewed in light of my career-crippling genitals so why not constantly call attention to them they’re practically constantly calling attention themselves if you know what I mean [boobs]) I’m truly blessed to have this incredible chapter on my resume–investors will surely be lining up to fund my next product just as quickly as they did for this one.

But most of all, thank you to our users. Without your substandard conversion rates, I never would’ve succeeded in creating this bankruptcy filing.

It’s a miracle you clicked on this blog post. Phone numbers are boring. And most of us just want to ditch them. But they’re about to get a whole lot more interesting and here’s why–

Your number is likely the worst feature on your phone when it comes to its utility–yes, it’s a universally accessible line to you so likely your best choice for direct communication but most of the time, it’s a really, really dumb tool.

Unscheduled phone calls are often interruptions, persistent texts at the wrong place or time from the wrong person is the millennial version of ‘death by a thousand papercuts.’ Your ringer is either on or off, there’s no built-in nuance for contacts or time of day.

Personal care of one’s phone number (dividing contacts into different numbers, setting up VIP lists on devices) is the modern day equivalent of flossing. Sure, it’s good for you and could save a lot of hassle down the road–but who has the time?

Also-holy shit these things are insecure. Like really really really bad.

Phone numbers are out dated, it’s a surprise we (Americans) still rely on them. I’m going to explore why they’re so terrible–and how they’re about to change rapidly to a whole new (pretty incredible) beast.

Imagine a world where we ditched phone numbers. Took away all inbox-based communication on our phone that went through our 10-digit identity. Why haven’t we done that yet? Why are phone numbers so terrible?

I blame the iPhone. With the introduction of the AppStore, Apple radically expanded the scope of inbox-based communication–now, I have messages coming to my phone via my Instagram, Twitter, Messenger, WhatsApp, Signal apps (in addition to my [Listen] phone number). Most people creating social software focused (duh!) on how best to communicate inside of their own app. This all happened fast and due to that speed, no one really stopped to think about how all these different channels to our home screen work together.

When we’re getting ten messages on ten different platforms within ten minutes–how do we prioritize that information? Most expected that their phone number was going to become one silo of their many communication channels but that expectation doesn’t consider how much more powerful a phone number is as a notification system than apps. You can’t lay a push notification next to a full-screen takeover and consider them even.

As phones changed in context and scope for consumers, telephony sat idle. (This is so crazy to me!!!!!!!!) I’ve talked with some people who blamed it on porting laws–giving users ability to switch carriers at any time made carriers uninterested in innovating on numbers. I think they just didn’t have any reason to innovate. carrier figured lock-in contracts to pay off new phones, etc was fine enough of a strategy for getting and keeping customers. Then they sat back and let device makers set up how their number behaves. This stagnancy has been terrible for consumers.

But it’s worked for carriers! So why care? Traditionally, people have stayed with their carrier for years, postpaid churn rates hover around 1%.

This is all about to change, and phones numbers are about to have the ability to get interesting, mostly because of this:

Phone Numbers + Data *~ you can’t have one with the other~*

Ok, ok. You can technically have a phone number without data (I do right now on my iPhone! Using Listen instead)–but SIM cards are expected to be connected to a phone number. For example, iMessage on an iPhone will only work through a user’s SIM-card connected number. It’s a security function by Apple but it might just be a relic from the days when Apple would only work on ATT.

So, number+data go together because that’s how consumers and device makers expect a phone plan to be packaged. This is silly but ultimately it is what allows phone numbers to become pretty amazing tools. I dive in more on that later.

Carriers have traditionally marketed their plans based on the strength of their data offering:

• coverage / reliability
• speed
• price

However, the true customer lock-in for carriers has been the structure of their phone plans. Family plans, contracts, and newer programs like Verizon Edge keep people stuck with their carrier. There’s a lack of clarity around how one can move between providers and different price points. I’ve spoken to dozens of people over the past year about their phone plans and most:

• don’t know if they can switch (unsure if still on contract or paying off phone)
• have no idea if they’re paying above or below market rate
• think ‘hassle’ of switching carriers is likely too much of a pain in the neck to bother
• have no idea how their service stacks up to other carriers re: data coverage/speed/reliability

You’re probably paying too much for your phone plan, it’s fairly simple to switch, family plans are a racket unless if you’re actually still a nuclear family who are all living in the same house. I’ve talked to adult people who are on the same plan with two divorced parents and others who are married but still on a plan with their parents instead of their spouse because it seems like too much of a pain to switch and a lot of people who were on five+ family plans and fighting over who used all the data. Often people don’t realize that they could be saving a bunch money if they switched to more sensible plan. It’s easy and you’ll save a bunch of money. Do it.

So, what gets people to switch carriers?

T-Mobile has practically doubled its market share since introducing their unlimited “Uncarrier” plan a few years ago. It came to market about $50 under average unlimited plans and at a time where customers on big carriers only had unlimited if they were ‘grandfathered’ in, proving that people will respond to price cuts when those cuts are significant (tens of dollars, not dollars).

It also got a lot of people experiencing something for the first time in years–switching carriers. Many hadn’t done so since before it was possible to switch and keep one’s numbers. People are seeing that it’s easy to switch. That experience makes them likelier to switch carriers sooner in the future. And carriers are know it. Postpaid churn rates are rising–not dramatically but it’s happening.

About a month ago, we saw Verizon, ATT, and Sprint sound the alarm with their own unlimited price plans. This is the beginning of something huge for consumers. When data prices drop so low that price becomes immaterial between plans–what’s next for carriers to tout?

I believe:

• data is good enough everywhere on all carriers that it is no longer a major selling point for customer unless if you’re specifically in a pocket that loses service from X telecom (which is a real and very annoying problem for many less-populated areas in America)
• data is fast enough across all carriers that it is no longer a major selling point
• data is about to be cheap enough that it is no longer a major selling point

Most of all:

• the ‘price wars’ will get more people exposed to porting numbers between carriers and churn rates of carriers will continue to rise
• postpaid churn rates’ upward momentum will be exponential (more below in MVNO section)
• churn rates rising w/ nowhere to go on price or speed means that carriers will have to innovate on other components

So, if my beliefs are true, what’s left?

The Resurrection of MVNOs

More like MVNLOL am i rite (kill me now). It’s worth noting that in this section, I’m mostly talking about MVNOs built as offshoots of larger corporations–not dedicated demographic-based ones like Cricket, Boost that are basically just marketing wrapper for big carriers.

(def. MVNO–mobile virtual network operator, basically a carrier that is built on top of a big telecom’s infrastructure. For ex; Twilio Wireless is actually fulfilled by T-Mobile, just white labeled)

Remember ESPN’s mobile plan? Or Disney’s? Brands believed wrapping their content into phone services was the future. This was the world before apps: each service thought they could win as the one-off content provider for the phone. ESPN Mobile had its own device, with push notifications built in for scores, important updates, etc. Imagine if your entire phone was just Twitter app + phone service. That’s the future expected by these companies who took a stab at MVNO. And part of the reason why MVNOs are so looked down on now–when they’re a vanity project for content, they fail.

MVNOs are about to become popular again. And this time they‘ll succeed. Here’s why:

Large companies are again approaching MVNOs. Above I said that due to rising churn rates and nowhere significant to go on price or speed, carriers will need to innovate on data and their features in order to differentiate. Here’s how Project Fi (Google) and Comcast are doing that:

• They’re pairing their access to WiFi networks with devices to innovate on data/service/price–by using WiFi where available, cost is kept fairly low (probably much more so for urban areas)
• Project Fi works internationally, transitioning between US + serviced countries seamlessly and without extra cost

One neg for Project Fi is that it only works with certain Android phones (Nexus, Pixel) since they had to build-in device component to auto-connect to their networks. Comcast is likely to be similar (hasn’t launched yet).

I don’t believe the ‘pay-as-you-go versus postpaid’ argument is important in these examples because cost is already low and data usage is too much of an enigma with the auto-connect to WiFi for pay-as-you-go to be really effective for user in action.

None of these points are powerful enough that I think those MVNO will become a home run. Here’s where the home run MVNO comes from:

About a year ago, Twilio announced Twilio Wireless. I think the future of phone numbers and data could be created on that platform. Basically, they want to do for data what they did for voice and text; make it readily accessible to even novice developers. What do we get when kiddos and idiots like me can suddenly hack on an otherwise stodgy, complicated platform?

Imagine, a startup not trying to wrap in any content or already-established corporate services (looking at you forcing Hangouts onto me, Project Fi). What would a company do if they were focused only on making the best data service provider for you? It’s important that they recognize:

• Your data plan shouldn’t mean only mobile data for one device (Project Fi knows this; offering free data SIM cards connected to your account to stick wherever–very useful if traveling abroad w/ someone who isn’t on Fi and could be more useful in future for reasons I get into below). I believe Comcast also recognizes this–in fact I believe it won’t be so surprising to me if three-five years from now lots of us only have data plans and no longer are paying for home WiFi–probably one of the reasons they decided to dip into MVNO game.
• Phone number features can be used as a way to differentiate from competitors. Everyone is falling over each other to copy and get to lowest data price possible. But if one’s phone number could start to stand out and lock-in as if a network (think iMessage v Messages)–baby, we’ve got something great.
• Clarity around price and porting could make customers feel secure and actually inspire loyalty (instead of scaring them into it)
• Make that data secure, encrypt where you can, don’t be horrible. Don’t sell customer browsing data
• Introduction of many different competitors to the mobile data platform will help drive the exponential rise of carrier’s churn rate (smaller companies creating more clarity and handholding to leaving / joining new carrier process; better onboarding and education)

So, the future is all data everywhere for everyone real cheap and now, finally, we’re at a point where we get to look at the transformation phone numbers are about to make.

I think Jeff Lawson (CEO, Twilio) said it best, in his letter to shareholders:

Think about it: In the fictional future, Star Trek communicators are perfectly useful — Captain Picard is never interrupted during a Red Alert by a tele-marketer. The dry cleaner never interrupts a Holodeck session to let him know his Starfleet uniform is ready to be picked up; yet when the Borg are approaching at warp speed, you better believe that contextually meaningful and relevant communication gets through with urgency. You’ll receive every communication that’s relevant to an important task at the right time, with context embedded within the communication. That’s because communication will be a function of that task, app or workflow — not a standalone activity…

Hot, Sexy, Cool Telephony (finally!)

Or more like, extensible–flexible–smart–simple but, hey, you know how hard it is to get people to care about phone numbers.

No matter what, your SIM card (for the foreseeable future) is going to come with a phone number. Let’s make that phone number work well. When we think of how one’s number + data can interplay–things get really interesting.

First, let’s take care of the insecurity issue as best we can. Going back to iMessage v Messages example–we can’t control for security with messages or calls that terminate at a different carrier. But, we can encrypt for Listen-to-Listen users.

Next, let’s make the numbers extensible. Let’s have a way for people to control which device rings when or let’s have the logic to do that easily for our customers and let’s also provide them with those devices so they can built a communication channel according to their preferences.

I did that with my Listen BatPhone (for at-home deliveries) and my Magic Mirror Listen module (for high-priority messages when my phone is off). Being able to have my phone tucked away while at home without any anxiety over whether I’m missing something important is a luxury. Phone calls shouldn’t be just ‘full screen’ or ‘blocked’–I should be able to say, “when I walk into my office, ring my office phone instead of my cell phone” or, “make my Jewelbot blink if I get a text from this person,” and this is all accessible through one number. One number can handle this all–spinning off several numbers to handle several scenarios/contacts is insane to me.And coupled with one’s data plan, all the devices can be SIM-enabled

You should be able to auth into your phone number, you should be able to share data from it and switch feature sets. I think of where phone numbers have to go similar to where MVNOs failed–those that focused on creating single ‘super app’ like ESPN Mobile missed that the boat was going towards iPhone AppStore and that soon one would have a million different ESPN Mobile-like systems running on their phone. Your phone number is currently the equivalent of a ‘super app’ on your phone–only behaving in one defined way for texts and calls. But I believe, your number should have a wide range of behaviors and feature sets to choose from based on the device and owner. Pairing that with the ability to drop SIM cards also tied to one’s data plan into your home and office devices could get pretty crazy. ‘Allow incoming phone calls to be displayed on my television if from X high-priority contact + I’m not currently on my phone,’ or a swipe left to display a photo taken while you’re walking through NYC to your significant other’s frame unless they’re not home–then fallback to a text (provided they’re also using Listen and thus living with synchronized devices–see, a network lock-in!).

Phone numbers should mean, ‘get X to this person,’ instead of, ‘ping their one device’ and phone numbers should know enough about your importance to your contact and how your contact wants to be notified based on that importance. This should be done simply, mindlessly–users shouldn’t have complicated groups or rules for contacts.

Inbox-based communication like email benefited from inheriting a sense of asynchrony since at its origin expectation was that people would ‘check’ their email not constantly be receiving it on their phone. Text didn’t get the same advantage. Texting via your phone number is simultaneously inbox-based AND synchronous–especially with the rise of ‘invisible apps–which is painful as hell.

Your number should understand, “silence all calls and texts from this person but still display them for me in a separate folder” and “allow this person to choose to blink the lights in my house if they text me” and “send this message to this person WITHOUT sending them a notification.” We want to make communication better by giving both sides more control over notification system for texts and calls. They should sync with your calendar and react logically to context / time of day for you.

313.492.4177 is my only number and it handles everything perfectly for me. I could paint that number on my naked chest and walk around Times Square and still have a completely capable, unsullied phone number. It’s a shame how little control we’ve had over notifications and our phone’s inbox in the past. I’m happy to say we’re able to finally give you that capability. And we’re working on the rest of it.

Anyways, if you agree or disagree, feel free to let me know. I can’t believe you read all this. Thank you.

My phone is always on silent and I’ve been trying increasingly to turn it off when I’m at home–relying on my ListenMagic module to display messages from high-priority contacts.

However, I often order Seamless or have a specific phone call that I’m waiting for–forcing me to keep my phone on at home.

Not anymore. I hooked up Twilio’s SIP feature to my phone number–now I have the ability to toggle on/off my ‘batphone’–meaning, any calls that come in to my number while I’ve turned my batphone ‘on’ will ring my landline (hooked up to an Obihai OBi200) instead of my cellphone. And when I turn it off, calls go back to my iPhone like normal.

There are some ways I’d like to modify this–looking at a hook to ring home phone when last known SSID for Listen app (if <1hr) matches my home phone SSID. I also am currently using a site to toggle on/off my batphone, and I’d like to instead figure out how to correctly get the button pictured above hooked to GPIO pins on my Raspberry Pi (meant to post w/ button working but haven’t quite cracked it yet and wanted to get this post out).

Phone numbers should work like this. They should be extensible to several different devices with simple ways but smart logic routing between those devices based on how the person needs to be notified. One number with infinite notification paths based on your preferences that balance the importance and timeliness of the inbound contact’s message so that one never needs to ‘check their phone’.

How I made this with Listen + MagicMirror:

Everyone has their own special method for dealing with their phone. I like to turn mine off. For the past four years, I’ve tried to keep my phone off for all of Saturday (at the very least). I still find myself reflexively grabbing for it on those days, hitting the home button and watching as the screen stays gray.

I used to spend a few moments Friday nights reminding coworkers and my mother that I’d be turning off my phone soon. If I forgot to do this, I’d turn my phone on to find escalating series of text threads moving swiftly from, ‘just checking in’ to ‘are you alive?!1!’

To solve this, we built Listen. Now I can set up an auto-response before I turn off my phone so that anyone who calls or texts my phone number hears my message, ‘Phone off for Saturday.’

However, there still exists the issue that I don’t have the luxury of a life where my phone can actually be off without anxiety. My family is in Michigan (and I’m in New York), so phone is the only way they can reach me. Listen is only a three-person company so any issue with the site is immediately my issue, especially since good support is a core value for us.

A nightmare scenario would be turning on my phone to find out something had melted down on Listen and no one answered users’ requests for help or a family emergency had occurred and my family wasn’t able to reach me.

So, I built Listen-Magic. Listen-Magic is a module for MagicMirror. Using a Raspberry Pi hooked up to a display and Listen’s API, Listen-Magic shows me texts from certain chosen contacts to my phone number. This way, my phone can be off but there’s a way for family and work to reach me in case of emergency. Everyone who texts me still receives my auto-response so they know where I am–and I have no anxiety that I might be missing something immensely time-sensitive from my most important contacts.

Something like this should be in every home. We’re working on creating a way for individuals to generate access tokens for their Listen number so that anyone can use Listen-Magic.

In the meantime, I encourage everyone to explore MagicMirror. It’s great. Listen-Magic was the first thing I ever really coded myself (though I did get lots of guidance from Austen) and MagicMirror’s forums + documentation helped make that possible for me. I plan on making more modules for mine (and hopefully yours!).

Remember how you used to have to switch your number when you got a new carrier? Luckily the FCC intervened to make porting guaranteed for each user of a phone number.

So now, most people have had their phone number for many years. After a few years, notifying a change in number to every person, service, doctor’s office, two-factor app that currently has your original number would be a long, arduous task. This makes your phone number an extremely valuable possession to you.

To port, you tell the new provider, “Hey! I want you to own my number. Here’s my account info for my current provider.” That new provider goes to your old provider and tells them to fork over your number. Legally, your old provider must obey unless you’re still on contract with them (a phone payment plan like AT&T Next). Provided you’re settled up with the old provider, you should be enjoying your same number on your new provider fairly soon after (usually a few days).

Sometimes there’s a fee associated with porting out a number ($3 for Google Voice)–we don’t agree with that.

Traditionally, porting has been a manual and complicated process for all involved. Telephony API provider Twilio has (very) recently released a solution to make porting simpler for consumers. We’re releasing a site soon using that API to allow people to easily move their number from their carrier or Google Voice to Listen.

Now imagine a future where porting is very fast–if you combo that with our thoughts about virtual v SIM numbers…and you can switch phone number provider by just verifying your identity and saying, “OK.” We might soon live in a world where your phone number acts however you want it to act one minute and acts differently the next minute. Switching between feature sets for your phone number could be as simple as downloading a new app. Amazing, right?

Virtual phone numbers are catching up to SIM numbers at a fast pace and pretty soon the advantage will be to virtual numbers as more and more users separate their phone service (calls and SMS) from mobile data plans in order to take advantage of cheaper, more innovative services for phone numbers. And we have our ability as consumers to port our number to thank for this future.

Telecom Thursday: What’s porting? was originally published in listenapp on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This link is a much better and involved post on this topic.

SIM cards were first installed on mobile phones to identify the payee of mobile phone plan to a carrier’s network and make one’s phone act on their network according to the specifications of their plan. It serves largely the same purpose today.

SIM Application Toolkit (SAT)

SAT evolved because carriers wanted to offer added value to a phone plan for market differentiation. SAT was how users could access a menu of controls and options for their phone to let them do things like read a horoscope or view sports scores.

As mobile phones moved into graphical interfaces, device makers innovated on features similar to but far better than what was possible via SAT in order to differentiate themselves from competitors. This led carriers to stop innovating on adding value to user’s phone via SIM. Instead, carriers doubled down on marketing, device exclusivity and competing on price for consumers.

Current state of SIMs

You don’t need a SIM card to use a phone, but you do need a SIM to use native voice and texting apps on smartphones. This is because Apple and Google have chosen to ‘trust’ carrier-connected (read: SIM) phone numbers more than virtual numbers. To use a virtual phone number currently means you’re using a non-native app.

Your current SIM has these features:

• Can access cell tower network
• Knows who you are and
• Can act on your plan configurations (ie, no service if over X GB or no roaming)
• Can call 911
• Dial carrier-specific numbers to access different services related to one’s phone plan (ie *729 on ATT phones to pay a phone bill)

What’s next?

You might be thinking: if a SIM’s level of involvement with the performance of the phone is so low, than why do I have to change my SIM every time I switch carriers? It doesn’t seem like that piece of hardware is that complicated or carrier-specific. Or you might not be thinking that because you’ve never switched carriers since it’s such a pain in the ass process.

It is possible to live in a world without worrying about SIM cards, but only as a theory. Embeddable SIMs are a concept which would allow a user to change carriers without switching out SIMs. There’d have to be an agreed upon process between involved parties to handle a user going from carrier to carrier but also device to device–Apple would have to work with Google in case they’re the losing company to port a number. AT&T would have to agree on how to switch a user to T-Mobile, etc etc.

There are two possible paths that I think are more likely than device makers and carriers coming together to create eSIMs:

We live in a world where people begin to have data only mobile plans and device makers begin to treat virtual phone numbers as first-class citizen on their OS.

Or

We live in a world where Wi-Fi is so readily available to everyone that they no longer need a data plan.

My first example is very likely to occur in the next couple of years–data is only going to get better and cheaper for consumers, particularly VoIP. I believe virtual phone numbers won’t be accepted as a whole entity by any OS–but instead one provider at a time (Listen , DialPad, etc).

I believe CallKit on iOS 10 shows Apple’s interest in supporting VoIP apps and beginning to think about how virtual phone numbers play with their ecosystem.

Telecom Thursday: What’s a SIM card (and why do you need one)? was originally published in listenapp on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Quick history of phone numbers

Phone numbers began as a way to identify an intended recipient of a call by a caller to a switch operator. They were typically a memorable phrase pertaining to one’s location followed by a number. The first two letters of the phrase would pertain to two numbers. That phrase was known as the “telephone exchange name” and was a reference to the caller’s central office–basically, the location of their telephone switch. This is why letters are a feature on a phone’s dial pad.

An example involves my favorite movie of all time, Translyvania 6–5000. It’s title was a play on a song by Glen Miller Band “PEnnslyvania 6–5000” which was NYC Hotel Pennslyvania’s old telephone exchange: PE6–5000. It would be dialed as: 736–5000.

When long-distance dialing went direct, phone companies created area codes (since a switch operator in Ohio wouldn’t be able to clarify with caller that Pennsylvania 6–5000 was the hotel in NYC and not some place in Pennsylvania) and all phone numbers were made numerical by the Bell System.

How phone numbers worked 20 years ago

Before DSL and cell phones, you had a telephone line–a tangible piece of wire connecting your phone to nearby phone lines. This telephone line was assigned a single phone number. If you wanted more than one number, you needed another piece of wire.

Remember party lines? I’ll get into those in another post.

Your carrier would provide services for that phone number (call waiting, *67, *69). You would chose their physical phone for its looks and possibly its answering machine capabilities–nothing more. Your carrier took care of all the technical features of your telephone line and thus, your phone number.

How a phone number works today

There are two kinds of phone numbers: virtual numbers and carrier-connected phone numbers.

Carrier-connected phone numbers are found on a SIM card. That SIM card identifies the user of the phone number to their carrier. All calls and SMS move through cell towers so that the carrier can tally and charge the user accordingly.

The process of receiving a call to a carrier-connected number from a carrier-connected phone number looks like this:

Virtual phone numbers, like Listen and Google Voice, don’t use cell towers and aren’t contained on a SIM card. They take the concept of a phone line and turn it into software. The phone number can be accessible via smartphone or web app and the user’s identity is only known to the extent that user has decided to share to that service. Since virtual phone numbers are, well, virtual, they are able to have more flexibility for the user when it comes to features and behavior.

The process of receiving a call to a virtual phone number from a carrier-connected phone number looks like this:

Carrier-connected phone numbers connectivity to cell towers is why those numbers are able to dial 911. Virtual phone numbers typically cannot dial 911 because emergency services won’t know the caller’s location and there are specific fees and infrastructure in place to ‘allow’ a number access to 911.

Apple’s iMessages only allows a user’s carrier-connected phone number to be used. Some reasons I think this is so:

1. Security–a carrier-connected number is fairly steady identification for a user
2. Virtual phone numbers haven’t yet reached the point where there’s a enough demand for one’s virtual numbers to be used as a primary number

Since carrier-connected phone numbers can rely on a user’s smartphone OS to handle voice and SMS–carriers have only sought to compete with other services in the market on price. This has led phone numbers as a product to be barely touched feature-wise in the last decade, though they remain a daily part of American life.

How a phone number will work in the future

We believe that they won’t exist in the future–and if they do, they will behave much closer to what Listen is building now than the current relationship between carriers and OS. Many countries are already experiencing this: In China, it’d be no surprise if you could only call your doctor via WeChat.

Why is North America so slow on adapting to a world beyond numbers? Much of it has to do with culture and sociological reasons that I don’t have enough space to get into at this moment, but some brief speculations:

1. Disjointed adaptation of technology in our society among different age groups and regions
2. Lack of need for people to make international calls compared to other countries (a key component in growth of WhatsApp etc)
3. Market’s lack of familiarity with and innovation for ‘feature phones’ compared to Asian countries

A service like Listen can win in the US by turning the phone number into a username. This gives our users all the features of a phone service with much, much more control than currently provided by carrier-connected phone numbers. Plus, we can innovate on Listen-to-Listen interactions so that users can have both a meaningful messenger app AND a phone service in one inbox.

Telecom Thursday–What’s a phone number? was originally published in listenapp on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

SMS and calls are not very secure via phone numbers. Here’s why:

• several companies are involved–typically both a carrier and OS
• we can’t know what logs are kept / how data passes / what the f they do with your stuff at those companies
• they could be actively spying on you for $$ from our government (f*ck)

Unfortunately, we can’t get rid of phone numbers anytime soon. They’re an expected part of daily life. Calling your congressperson, confirming a doctor appointment, getting in contact with non-smartphone using family members, etc etc–we’re stuck with them.

Here’s how we made Listen secure:

• Data is transferred to and from the client with TLS.
• Our database is encrypted at rest by using AES-256, block-level storage encryption.
• Thanks, Heroku!
• All calls, texts, and media are deleted from Twilio via their Delete API
• Credit goes to Austen Ito

For launch, we did not focus on end-to-end encryption for those users although we could have. Here’s why:

• we knew majority of early users would be communicating with *non* Listen users
• we didn’t realize Trump was going to get elected

In the future, we want to partner with Open Whisper Systems, which is the current gold standard on encryption. See this post and this post.

Security is a reason why we might not build business accounts. A lot of requested features for a ‘business account’ involve storing data in a vulnerable way. We’d rather not do that, even if it’s for a paying set of customers. Taking away time from our work towards an ideal phone number to build features antithetical to that vision doesn’t feel good to us.

Any suggestions, thoughts or comments? Please let me know. Identifying flaws in this approach is crucial.

Security + Listen was originally published in listenapp on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

• Good service in most places I visit daily
• Simple, clear billing
• Freedom to readily change plan as needed
• Good customer service
• Deftly handle international travel
• Easy portability of my phone number if they fail me on any of the above points

Here are some issues I currently have:

• This month, I got a ~$200 phone bill and I couldn’t figure out why. After a lot of messing around on their site (could not find number to call and my messages into their ‘Can we help?’ chat box stayed in queue for too long), I found I was charged $48.86 for a 14 minute international phone call to New Zealand.
• I have a second phone tied to my plan. I cannot figure out how to close that account. I can suspend service (but billing doesn’t stop!) via their website. I can ‘turn data usage off’ (but billing doesn’t stop!) via their website. I’m billed a $15 ‘access charge’ per device but…I own the phones, I pay the bills–why am I being charged .
• I’m often on Wi-Fi, I don’t use $100 of data or calls and text. Of my 15GB allotted on my plan, I use ~6GB on average. Pay-as-you-go is not an option on ATT’s ‘Change my plan’ feature.
• I cannot find how to port my number out or ready my number to be ported out. I can ‘unlock’ my number–which is funny, because my number should be unlocked already–I’m not on a phone payment service with them or any sort of committed contract. I followed the three pages of questions to confirm that I want to ‘unlock’ my device–clicked through on the confirmation email–and now I have to wait two business days to hear of their decision.
• The website is slow and its interface feels like it was designed by Millie Brown (hat tip Rob Spectre). I’m continually clicking into dead ends.
• I have a free ‘pay-per-use’ term enabled for international travel. It does not let me know the rates, just that it will charge me but I’m assuming the charges are less than what they will be if I hadn’t gone into my account to enable ‘pay-per-use.’ But that’s unclear. What is clear is this: I won’t know how much I f’d up by enabling data so I could call my Paris AirBnB to let them know I was stuck in traffic while in France until my next bill arrives.

How it should work:

• Twilio has listed two different rates for international calling to New Zealand: $0.0215/minute or $0.065/minute. Twilio’s price difference is based on the cost of the provider you as the user are calling. Sure, I wouldn’t know which rate I hit upon until my bill arrives–but at 99.5% cheaper than my ATT rate–I’m satisfied.
• My phone plan should act like *my* phone plan. I can end service on a phone simply with one click. I can add a new line with one click. I can cancel my service entirely with one click. I can text my phone service support. I can call my phone service support.
• I can receive text messages notifying me each time I hit a GB because the standard should be pay-as-you-go data. Flat rates for data are a great way for phone companies to make money–phone companies do nothing to notify users who are consistently under their limit. As consumers, we need to be smarter about this.
• Provided that I’ve paid for their service, I should be able to easily take my service elsewhere. No contract should mean no arduous ‘unlocking’ of the device. Phone companies touting ‘no contract’ use other methods to hold you hostage to them by making the porting process murky and requiring users to go through unnecessary steps and waiting periods.
• There are smart people who design phone service provider websites. I just don’t think they’re honest people. Confusing, slow interfaces mislead customers and they’re aware of it.
• When I travel internationally, my phone knows. In the situation highlighted above, it would offer me a French number to use while in Paris. From there, any uptick in pricing should be clearly communicated and truthfully, avoided–your phone plan should work abroad at the same rates as at home. Google Fi does it, now we need a fix for iPhones.

Here’s what we’re doing to fix this with Listen:

• I’m porting my number from ATT to Listen. This means I’m routing all my calls and texts through Twilio–which is great because we get access to an add-on which has better spam defense than my iPhone’s Phone app.
• Also through Listen, I can take action on texts (like set a reminder) and create auto-responses (such as, while I’m on that flight to France) and enable settings like “only allow notifications from favorite contacts”–so while I’m on my Parisian vacation, my phone is less of a distraction. We don’t need more inboxes and we don’t need more notifications. Our attention spans are tapped out. Listen lets you control how you communicate–instead of your phone lighting up for anyone who enters your number into the ‘send’ field.
• I’m using the new Twilio Wireless. This allows me to pay as I go for data at the clearly defined rate for high volume. Their current pricing would make my current bill ~$90/month, saving me $40+ in a pay-as-you-go scenario. For once, ‘no hidden charges’ actually means ‘no hidden charges’ wso if I’m mindful about my data usage, I can save even more.

If anyone is interested in trying this out with us as we test a new frontier of a carrier-less life, here’s what we promise you:

• Billing will be clear. It will be pay-as-you-go. You will be able to leave at any time. We will have a simple payment process and simple terms.
• You will get help when you need it in whichever way you chose to reach out to our company.
• Porting your number in and out will be as simple as we can make it in light of the wait times / archaic processes handed down from other companies.
• When you travel internationally, it will be handled deftly and without extra charges.

We want to help you cut off your carrier. We’re getting together a pilot program now. Are you interested? Text or call me at 323.391.4265 or email me leto@uselisten.com

A Carrier-Free Life was originally published in listenapp on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.