Some time ago I came to a realization. Phone numbers are unnecessary and can be replaced with other things.
Privacy
The main reason I think phone numbers shouldn't be used is because privacy. Phone numbers themselves are usually an identifying piece of information that can be used to get information about you. Most of the time, people obtain phone plans using their real identity and may even be required to do so by law. Because of this, when they call someone, their full name may appear with the phone number. This information could also be made public through data brokers making it so simply searching the phone number online could reveal the identity of its user.
Phone calls and SMS are also unencrypted and the meta data and possibly even the communication content itself is saved for the service provider, their partners, and the government to comb through should they wish.
They Suck At What They Do
The whole phone number communication system itself is probably the worst system there is for digital communication. To obtain a phone number, you must go to a store, buy a plan or pre-paid SIM card with money and potentially give real identification. If you get a plan, you have to sign a contract and the service provider may have to make sure you have enough consoomer points (credit score) to be trustworthy to pay your phone bill. After all this labor done and money spent, you now have a phone number.
There are countless services, software, and protocols that can achieve the same thing having a phone number does but for free and anonymously. Any of these free services that are actually worth using have encrypted communication and are libre software so it's extremely hard if not virtually impossible for third parties to surveil your communications (meta data may still be unencrypted depending on service/software) and the software can be audited for any insecurities and problems. Even better is that a lot of this software are decentralised protocols so you can choose from potentially countless providers depending on your wants or host your own instance of the software if you know how to. These protocols and software can do literally anything communication-wise that phone numbers allow you to do.
The only benefit of phone numbers is the ability to use the cellular system to get internet access without standard ISP means. Although, it's best to use the cellular system just for internet access and use a superior system for communication.
A new problem that has emerged with phone numbers is that a lot of internet platforms and services now want your phone number. Some will require a phone number at sign up or even worse, wait some time then lock you out of your account until you give them a phone number. Even if you signed up with an email and verified it. That brings us to the next thing phone numbers suck at: having multiple. I can easily get multiple email addresses for free and anonymously and then further use email aliasing services giving me even more emails and making it so I can use different emails for everything. You can't really do that with phone numbers. It costs money to get phone numbers and free services that give you a phone number require an existing phone number and will most likely only let you have one alias number at a time. Because of this, unlike emails which can easily be obtained anonymously, you most likely only have access to one phone number which can be used to personally identify you. So internet services and platforms that require a phone number and you give them one, just received a piece of info that could potentially reveal your identity or at least give a clue of who you are even if everything else can't be tied to you in real life. Also, If an application has access to your contacts, they have access to the phone numbers and names. So if someone else gives access to their contacts and your name is with your phone number, when you input your phone number, that application now potentially has your name even if you didn't give it away.
Problems
There is one big problem preventing us from moving on from phone numbers. Everyone uses them and they are required for basic life tasks. Government services, work, and schooling most likely requires a phone number with no option to bypass the requirement. Even though there are countless other means that can be used for communication, for many things that are even basic requirements to function in society, you need a phone number even if you'll never actually use it with whatever thing that requires it.
Update: VOIP Numbers
Sometime after publishing this article, I have been using exclusively VOIP numbers. While I already referenced them here as alias numbers, I now have more experience with them. VOIP numbers for the most part work as a fine in-between, essentially using internet to communicate with telecoms networks. However, you're still using the telecoms infrastructure which as inferred by this article, I believe is outdated and regulated to a point it shouldn't be used in the first place.
A massive problem with VOIP numbers is that a lot of things will not accept them. I refuse to buy a SIM card and therefore, VOIP numbers are my only way of using phone numbers for societal requirements. Except I have come across instances where services will not accept my VOIP number. These services want a real number because those are more regulated and can be tracked as mentioned in the Privacy section. These services claim it's for security or to prove you're human but they only care about being able to trace your identity. I can receive security codes or complete human authentication perfectly fine with a VOIP number so their claims are false.
Even prepay phone plans cost way too much and I refuse to pay $10-$15 monthly just to receive a few texts per month. You can get multiple VOIP numbers for less than that and compartmentalise them giving you better privacy. The telecommunications system is an overly regulated, overly expensive scam.
Written 2022-8-8 Published 2022-9-1 Updated 2025-3-1