Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Phone Numbers

https://github.com/google/libphonenumber/blob/master/FALSEHOODS.md

by benfreu • 2 years ago

19 5 2 years ago

egorfine• 2 years ago

Can we just agree to let people input any number of digits with a mandatory '+' prefix? I feel like this should eliminate the vast majority of mistakes.

axegon_• 2 years ago

I have managed to learn most of those the hard way. That said, the case in number 20 kinda surprised me though: My country did the same in the 90's and although I was a child back then, I have a good recollection of how that happened: the transition was from analog to digital but the switch was almost seamless: overnight your phone number got a "9" prefix and that was it. That is unless your landline was yet to be installed, in which case you got an "8". Whenever you dialed the old phone number without the prefix, you simply got a busy line. The old number was no longer valid and you could not reach it.

The aftermath was people forgetting to add the prefix and thinking the other person was constantly on the phone(or using the internet cause... dial up). Now inter-city calls were also associated with adding a city code to the number, so in my case for instance, if you wanted to call me from another city, you had to prepend 02. But those were also easy: all city codes were 2 digits. People from the capital had 6 digit numbers before switching to digital and 7 after. All other cities were 5 before and 6 after respectively. I think the people from (at the time sole) telecom did their homework for once in their history and realized that they had to make it stupid simple for elderly people living in the countryside and having all their numbers written down in an old notebook that's falling apart as it is.

That said, there were exceptions to the capital vs non-capital phones. Namely dial up internet providers. They always had 5 digit numbers and on some rare occasions 8. Mine had 8 and funnily enough, I still remember the number...

albert_e• 2 years ago

Can we also add :

Falsehoods that governments / authorities operate under --

- Every citizen has a phone number

- Every citizen has a phone number that is not shared with another person (if there are four citizens in a family - they will pay for 4 numbers)

- Every citizen has a phone number that is functional 24x7x365 / People will keep the phone battery charged all the time (so they can receive OTPs, scan QR codes etc)

- People will keep paying money to telecom service providers perpetually to keep their number active (even if they are struggling to feed themselves and their families, or having personal emergencies and crises)

- When people change their phone numbers -- they still have their old phone numbers with them and active so they can enter an OTP to confirm updating their phone number in your database

- Every citizen has a smartphone

- Every citizen will use Androird/iOS

- Every citizen will use a recent supported version of Andoird/iOS

- Every person has permissions to install any app

- Every person's smartphone has storage space to install any app, and to keep updating to new versions of the app

- Every person WANTS to install your app; there is no reason for the person to question/refuse/dislike/not-want to add your app even if it may use too much space, data, processing power, background threads that drains battery, and too broad permissions

- If a person is accessing your service from a phone, there is no reason for them to use a browser; you should prevent them from accessing your website and force them to install your app; at least nag them till they give up; or design your website to be unusable from a mobile browser;

green_dee• 2 years ago

You have compiled all that I have thought/experienced sometime in my life of the problems of phone-center communication in a single comment

AnonHP• 2 years ago

Phone numbers cannot be re-used
Old phone numbers are recycled and get reassigned to other people.

Minor nitpick. It’s not that old phone numbers are recycled and reassigned but those that are disconnected/unused.

The duration before recycling varies by country, carrier and the carrier’s ever-changing policies.

Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Phone Numbers

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