• Zak@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    I thought phone numbers and traditional telephone service would be dead by now. Instead, purely internet-based communication services often use them as an identifier.

    • Aatube@kbin.melroy.org
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      8 hours ago

      telephony only uses a subset of internet things so building just telephone lines is cheaper, which matters especially in the global south

      • Zak@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        I’m no expert on the subject, but it’s my understanding that mobile networks are being deployed much more widely in the global south than wired telephone lines, and they’re usually internet-capable.

        • Aatube@kbin.melroy.org
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          6 hours ago

          wait, you’re right. not sure what i was thinking of… then i guess it’s an easy way to get a unique human-readable subscriber identifier?