Direct SIP addressing? Not so fast.

It's the unglamorous stuff that usually makes the real difference between success and failure. One analysis of VoIP wonders when we'll be able to call a SIP phone by entering its SIP address instead of a conventional phone number. The answer: not any time soon. Addressing schemes are tricky things. Whippersnappers don't remember how big a deal it was when email addresses went from specifying every step (ihntp!rutgers!abasin!dan) to putting all that routing information into the cloud (dan@fiercevoip.com). No one, mercifully, remembers x.400 email routing schemes, and the days of operator-assisted intercity calling are receding out of memory and into folklore. So when will we see SIP-addressed phones? Maybe never because someone will figure out how to move SIP addressing to an easier scheme--one, of course, that still doesn't require the PSTN for termination.

For more information about SIP addressing:
- read this article from VoIPLoop