At today's hearing on number portability in the Senate (not the same as yesterday's House hearing on wireless carriers we blogged about this morning), Senator Ted "Series of Tubes" Stevens made an insightful point, though wrapped up in a little of his typical crazy-soundingness (via Consumerist):

Stevens: "Let me be just the Devil's Advocate here. Could I just decide I want to keep my wireline and I want to add wireless to it? Can I have two providers on the same number?"
Awkward pause: "Um, I don't think that technology exists right now."
Stevens: "If I had an IP phone, by definition, I'd have to leave the wire... wireline phone to use it?"
Answer: "I think that is the case with the technology today."
Stevens: "Is it coming? Why shouldn't I be able to say, just by a little switch on my phone at home that's wired, I'm going off on the wireless now, I want to use this as I ride my motorcycle."
Stevens: "I'm bad. Pardon me."

Sorry, telecom industry people, the technology for this kind of thing does exist. And Stevens has a point - why aren't carriers offering it? They're just locked into a pattern of thinking about each telecom service as a totally isolated silo, trying to kill IP phones, and trying to extract more money from consumers for using existing features, rather than innovating. So locked in, in fact, that they don't even think it's technologically possible to let a consumer switch from landline to mobile phone using one number.

The telecom industry, it's not a big truck. It's a series of Scrooges!