Its a nice hypothesis @brentv, the problem in my opinion is that people do have a worldwide phone number. Its called an email address With that you can use gchat, skype, corporate specific calling platforms or public web based calling connection services. These also interoperate with existing landline and mobile networks.
There are federated enterprise calling solutions around, the biggest I am familiar with is Microsoft based and has a familiar name to the broader public. There will no doubt be many niche's for travel products, even small business communication solutions. That however is a very different play to a global telco.
As I have suggested before, I don't think call roaming is the same issue (the cost of or necessity) that it was 5, 2 or even 1 year ago. So having a globally connected call, messaging platform might come off and it will work great - the question will be how much will it cost to develop, then getting customers and lastly.. how much will customers pay to use it?
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With that you can use gchat, skype, corporate specific calling platforms or public web based calling connection services. These also interoperate with existing landline and mobile networks.
(20min delay)