Phone conversations are just data, like any other data. However, it does have certain requirements such as relatively small point-to-point travel time (delay), and relatively few gaps or queuing "burps". Can the internet eventually replace dedicated phone services, or is it different enough to warrant a different infrastructure?

And, what about unique numbers? Will consumer-registered domain names replace those? Which organization(s) will manage them?
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Two different species, neither of which will mutually exclude the other. Telephones serve a points of audio and video contact, the internet as point of information proliferation and manipulation.

True you can have VOIP, but it is still mainly audio, and expected to be very close to real time with minimal timing confusing factors. Numbers still provide the simplest and most organizable form of connection. While a number at present is usually tied to a specific location or device, it can be represented by tokens such as uris or names specifying a domain or ip address.

Means of access should not confuse one as to what it is they are doing. While my telephone line (hardwired) provides me with Television, Internet, and landline phone (with wireless extensions)and my Cell phone provides me with wireless and mobile contacts and can even provide with internet and television, I presently use each as separate and find that presentation devices for each are appropriately sized and located for their main functioning. I textually communicate with people using my home office computing setup. I maintain a separation of concerns when it comes to communication and use the most appropriate for each: Television on 46 inch screen, phone on hardwired desktop or wireless extension or cell phone.

In my lifetime I do not see myself as becoming a wireless extension, requiring constant connection to someone else or somewhere else, preferring to live in the place I am and to interact with those in close proximity.
-- DonaldNoyes.20110902

ENUM does map telephone to internet DNS. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENUM
Many telephony provider already route their traffic over the internet. Or rather the internet and voice traffic uses the same low level networks. The DSLAM at the other end of your cable does it. Don't know about mobile.
But then the internet is not just www. Telephony is just one more traditional service merging in.


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See also:
* MiniatureFootprintComputing
* SmallFootprintComputing
* SmallFootprintComputingDiscussion
* LargeFormatMonitors