"VoIP phones *are* real phones. And those with cable broadband and VoIP service are completely off the telephone company grid, e.g., not a trace of Verizon in the house."
Except when the voice packet is terminated on a PSTN service to complete the call. It could then still be going over Verizon's Network. With VOIP the future would be dialing an IP address instead of a traditional POTS number. But that is still down the road a bit.
Correct, but we're way beyond proof-of-concept here, and it's demonstrable that Verizon is no longer technically necessary for precisely the reason you state below:
With VOIP the future would be dialing an IP address instead of a traditional POTS number. But that is still down the road a bit.
Think about it.
You're on an IP "telephone", so you have IP and presumably Web access, which means you can Google. You look up "Joes Pizza, Anytown" and get a result.
If Joe's Pizza *also* has its VoIP IP address associated with that Google directory entry, you're done. Click on the (imagined) GoogleDial button.
Even if you're on a DHCP network with private address space, there's no reason Google couldn't have a small app update the Google directory entry with your IP address every 10 or 15 or 30 minutes. Thus, clicking on your Google directory entry would eliminate the need for a telephone number.
I give it one year or two (max) to go experimental on Google.
Bye bye Verizon.