One phone number for all your phones, for life.
I already have that. It's called a cellphone.
I already have that. It's called a cellphone.
I haven't had a home landline for almost 6 years now (granted, four of those were spent in college) and most people I know that are my age (I'm 24) also do not have landlines. The first thing I do to any work phone is to put it on permanent call forward to my cellphone. There really is no longer a need for multiple phones.
Thinking multiple phones is still a problem in the age of cellphones is like saying, "How do I solve the problem of needing to carry around hundreds of CDs and a CD player to listen to the music I want?" in the age of the iPod.
The sibling comments that argue for multiple phone numbers, on the other hand, have a point. But they should all still go to my cellphone. To be fair to Grand Central, they partially support this feature. It's just layered on with a bunch of other crap I don't care for.
But the multiple phone number management thing, that's really just a marketing hook, the easiest possible sell for the mass market right now, isn't it? This service provides all of the features you could want when managing voice communications, completely independent from a physical device. I mean, really, why even have a phone at all? Just plug into your voice service however you damn well please, that's the actual story here.
I'm saying there are no situations in which I'd want more than a single physical phone. I've used more than a single physical phone, like when I'm outside the US and want a local cellphone number but don't want to lose my US number, but in every situation I'd prefer to keep a single physical phone.
You've never lived or worked in a building with terrible cell phone reception
Switch providers. Though, ideally, I should be able to get calls through VoIP on my WiFi.
had a dead battery but still really needed people to be able to get a hold of you
It's easier to find/carry a charger than it is to notify everyone that needs to be able to get a hold of me of the new number.
had your phone stolen, or had your simcard go bad?
These are exceptional situations. I can get a phone replaced within a day in such a scenario. If it's urgent I can borrow a friend's cellphone.
What if you give your phone number to the wrong people? They'll keep calling you. You might be able to filter out some, but they can always call from another number (think phone spam).
I'd rather have the option to generate new phone numbers and give one number to each person / 'community'. Then if I quit my job I can just filter away all people calling me on my job number.
That's also why people use multiple email addresses, or plus addressing.
The idea is kind of cool though... like generating one-time-use credit card numbers for dodgy e-commerce sites.
I'm interested in some of the other features (such as voice mail transcripts and advanced call routing), but the singular phone number issue was never a problem for me: my only phone has been my cell phone. I'd suspect a lot of young people are in the same boat.
It gives you much more flexibility: you can block certain numbers, forward to calls to voicemail, forward to other phones, record calls, make calls & listen to voicemails online, etc. There's plenty of utility even if you have a single phone.