Facebook being what it is, why hasn’t messenger replaced the phone system

Hello,

For years I have wondered. Messenger has more than a billion users. Messenger can do everything a normal phone service can do and more.

Facebook has done everything but the obvious and most necessary to make that last leap to taking a huge portion of business away from MaBell.

Assign each user a unique number. It could start with a F or f end with a B or b, start with FB or fb. End with that, or any combination. Then have some numbers thrown in.

The second they kind of tried but failed at. And that’s a device.
For FB this should have been a no brainer. They should have contracted a tablet manufacturer to build 6 inch tablets that were sim and wifi data capable. Build them exactly like a phone but without a cell radio or text radio.
Just data. FB would have no problem working out a deal with ATT or TMobile to get a a unlimited data sim sold with these devices.

The device would be nothing more than a 6 inch data capable tablet.
With extra ram, onboard memory and a larger battery. To give the customer more for their money and make sure they make the best impression for the adoptive customers.
Cell data, just like texting before it does not cost anything near what the big four charge for it. FBs arrangement with the telecom could pay FB a percentage to help with the increased cost of their side of the service and still give the customer a price break in monthly data fees.

Cost of device aside, there is no reason that this shouldn’t be possible for 25.00 a month unlimited data. At a speed that is more than capable of properly transmitting both voice and video calls.

They could and would provide a quality device, quality data service through the telecom and begin supplanting the phone companies while at the same time supporting their data side.