Massively^™

A number of sources have been talking about Second Life avatars getting their own phone number for voice calls. First hinted at in a discussion between Information Week writer Mitch Wagner, and Linden Lab's VP for Platform and Technology, Joe Miller, by far the best information on the topic at the moment seems to be available from Expletive Deleted.

E.D. spoke with Miller and got some more details. The goal, it would seem, is PSTN numbers for either groups or avatars with some sort of access PIN to prevent wholesale misuse -- and it looks like some elements of that may already be getting closer.

"This technology seems to be in the testing phase at group chat level right now, and is being tested by the PSTN Bridge 1 group, but it may soon be available for any group chats."

We can only hope that in the end it works a whole lot better than the telephone lines at Linden Lab do. The Lab's lines seem to be suffering from deficient function with great frequency, and the almost weekly maintenance doesn't seem to be helping any.