Time for a VoIP "area code"?

The new VoIP carrier efonica has an idea that's going to drive NANPA and the ITU nuts: an "internet area code." The bright idea (and they've applied for a patent) is to associate a Windows-based softphone with an already-existing phone number. To reach an efonica customer, another customer would merely have to dial that phone number, preceded with the digits "10": Instead of 1-NPA-NXX-XXXX, they would dial 10-1-NPA-NXX-XXXX. This is all well and good if it stays within the efonica online network, but one has to wonder about the impact on the global dialing structure if it gets outside.

For more information about the "internet area code":
- check out this article from Digital Trends