7 out of 10 people have lost contact with somebody by changing their phone number; 8 out of 10 would like a phone number for life

BRUSSELS, Belgium – August 25, 2009 – Voxbone, the telecoms company behind iNum, the area code for Earth, has announced the results of an international survey investigating phone number usage.(1) 

In particular, the survey looks at how many contact numbers people have had throughout their lives, and the frustrations of having to regularly change them.  It reveals that, while it is relatively simple to have a personal email address for life wherever you are located, changes in circumstance and service provision can still necessitate the need for new phone numbers, whether mobile or landline.

Voxbone’s survey reveals the real cost of being forced to change phone numbers multiple times: losing touch with friends and contacts, often without realising.

• Over a quarter of people (26%) have had more than 20 different contact phone numbers during their lives
• 7 out of 10 (70%) have lost contact with people as a result of changing their phone number
• 82% would like the option of having a telephone number they could take with them and keep for life wherever they moved in the world

Ofcom has recently announced (2) that it wants mobile operators to improve the way in which they ‘port’ numbers when consumers switch providers, yet it still remains difficult to take your landline number with you when you move house – and impossible when you move country.

Rod Ullens, CEO & co-founder of Voxbone, comments, “It seems crazy in this day and age that people are still regularly forced to give up and change a vital part of what identifies them to other people just because the majority of the telecoms industry still deals with its customers in a way that is line-focused rather than based around the individual.  The fact that we are still tied to country codes doesn’t help either.

“As the world population becomes increasingly migratory, phone numbers need to evolve to reflect users’ changing expectations.  There’s a new geography being created that's about local presence and global relationships rather than distance or national borders.  People no longer consider themselves tied down to a single location and don’t expect their phone number to be either.”

A major problem with traditional phone numbers is that they are tied to a particular country, or even a particular city.  Voxbone is the first company to offer iNums (international Numbers), a new kind of global phone number that works anywhere in the world.  This means that an iNum user will always be reachable on the same number for the rest of his/her life.

Because iNums are not associated with any one country or location, participating carriers can offer customers the opportunity to retain them as their service provider and billing point wherever they move.  iNums are billed as local calls when dialled through participating carriers anywhere in the world. 

Voxbone provides iNum numbers for free to carriers and service providers. The number wholesaler will receive calls to these numbers and deliver them over the internet to the appropriate service provider.  In this way, it enables interconnection with the PSTN network as well as calls between different VoIP (voice over IP) islands.

To get a full list of participating carriers, go to http://www.inum.net/what-is-inum/inum-partners/

(1) The Voxbone online survey elicited responses from 122 people across Europe and the USA.
(2) http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/gc18_mnp/