I have recently made a site to show invalid phone numbers in OSM data and suggest fixes for them.
At the moment, if there is a phone number which is definitely not a mobile/cell number, then it is suggested to move that number out of mobile or contact:mobile and into phone or contact:phone
There is a suggestion that the same should be done for mobile/cell numbers. So if a number was definitely a mobile number and was tagged in phone or contact:phone then it should be suggested that it be moved to mobile or contact:mobile.
How do you map phone numbers, or how do you think they should be mapped?
Landline numbers in phone, mobile numbers in mobile
All numbers in phone
Primary number in phone, if there is an additional number which is a mobile number, put it in mobile
0voters
(To make it simple, I have put phone in the poll, but read this as “phone or contact:phone" per your preference)
If it was me, I probably wouldn’t try and distinguish between mobile and non-mobile numbers (even in the UK, where in theory you should be able tell which is which, but in practice with number diverts you can’t).
It does make sense to identify and try and fix numbers that are actually invalid, though.
The difference between landline and cell phone numbers is getting more and more irrelevant for consumers, so to make a distinction in OSM is increasingly useless.
Well, I’d say it depends on the region; some places still have different pricing for mobile vs. landline (e.g. the latter being included in flat pricing, but former having per-call charges), and often some services are only offered on mobile (e.g. SMS).
Also, in Croatia at least, there is an expectation that landline will only be available during posted opening_hours (i.e. while someone is physically present at location), while mobile is likely to be available in wider range (e.g. esp. useful for e.g. opening_hours=Mo,We,Fr 12:00-16:00; "call us for other slots" situations which are quite often here for some services, like e.g. beauty salons and hairdressers)
Yeah, this straw poll seems unavoidably regional. It’s fine if some countries have a strong need to distinguish mobile numbers as much as the rest of us distinguish fax or pager numbers, but it couldn’t possibly be a universal rule.
In the entire NANP there’s no guarantee that any number pattern leads to mobile subscribers exclusively.[1] Probably the only time I would’ve ever been able to tag mobile=* confidently was the time I dined at a family-run restaurant that listed one phone number on its sign out front and four other numbers on the takeout menu – one for each member of the family, including the two children. (Imagine what a bad idea it would be to tag a minor’s phone number in OSM.)
In some countries, even when you can tell it’s a mobile number, you can’t necessarily use mobile=*. The pharmacy pictured below is typical of urban Colombia. The number on the third line follows the pattern of a mobile phone number, but the logo next to it tells you it’s their WhatsApp number, which is usually tagged contact:whatsapp=*. You can get service by contacting that number through the application but not necessarily by dialing it directly.
I think there is still some (small) value in the distinction where the business itself explicitly advertises a main/fixed number and a mobile number. As @Matija_Nalis said, there may be an implication that the mobile is for calls outside business hours.
But that would need a survey to confirm, as it’s based on the way the business displays its contact details, not on the pattern of the numbers. It probably doesn’t lend itself to a tool like the one discussed here which I think is for remote error correction.
The phone plug-in for JOSM handles phone numbers and formatting of fixed line numbers and has a rule set for e.g. Italy which have an area code with leading zero. It balks at mobile phone numbers which don’t have an area code, rather a 3 digit operator number ** thusly mobile= key is the fix. The plugin lib actually is updated regularly.
** that connection went out the window as numbers are transferable between providers. The mobile/contact:mobile tag has a 110k use per taginfo. The trend is away from fixed line numbers. Be contactable 24/7.
Thank you everyone for the replies and votes. It is helpful to get a regional picture of these things. I don’t think it’s worth adding validation and fixes for moving mobile numbers out of the phone tag, especially for only a few countries.
And for anyone that wants to do that, it seems they can use the phone plug in for JOSM, although I find that too aggressive in how it moves numbers around between tags.
I agree that in many cases there is still a difference. What I’m trying to say is that there is a trend that the difference is becoming less relevant, so the effort to distinguish between them on OSM may become useless soon.
I’m also wondering if for most countries, the difference can be detected automatically (from the number itself) so should be left for data users to distinguish.
