ENUM Potential Global Backbone for VoIP, Mobile Operators?
BRUSSELS -- ENUM technology could shake up traditional interconnection models, Wolfgang Reichl, dir. of Austria Telekom subsidiary OEFEG, said here Wed. Speaking at a mobile regulation and competition law conference, he said the technology -- which maps phone numbers to Internet protocol addresses -- was conceived as a “business card” letting users to list phone numbers and contacts in the domain name system. The idea never took off, and the focus is now on “infrastructure ENUM” as a global routing database for mobile operators and VoIP providers, he said.
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ENUM will revolutionize interconnection in many ways, such as in cutting operator capital costs by exploiting the ubiquitous, reliable domain name system, Reichl said. A 2nd way would be enabling the originating administration domain to perform all-call queries to find a destination network -- the ultimate number portability solution, he said.
A nonglobal form of infrastructure ENUM already sees use in the U.S. to route multimedia messaging services between mobile operators, Reichl said. In May, XConnect acquired carrier ENUM exchange e164.info, creating the world’s largest VoIP peering community with an ENUM registry of phone numbers of 150-plus providers. Another, Service Provider ID E.164 Record (SPIDER), is a set of low-cost, shared database tools VoIP communities and communications services providers can use to exchange interconnect address information. SPIDER resolves the industry problem of how, given a dialed number, a provider can get interconnection information it needs from the list of individual service providers, intermediaries or VoIP communities it trusts to terminate a call or session to the number, he said.
Infrastructure ENUM answers the service provider query: “Where should I send the traffic if all I've got is a phone number?” Reichl said. But global deployment is lagging for reasons including the lack of a VoIP peering regime and resolution of still-undetermined regulatory, policy, and commercial issues.
The “technology introduction curve” is what’s causing ENUM deployment to lag, Reichl said. Contrary to some predictions, ENUM isn’t being superseded by newer tools, though hype about it may have peaked, he said. The best opportunity for infrastructure ENUM is if the GSM Assn. decides to use it in a backbone network for mobile operators, according to Reichl.
ENUM has “huge potential” to “rock the boat” of the interconnection regime, Reichl said. ENUM and multimedia peering are 2 ingredients needed for a “universal network for multimedia communications” in IP. Data show that 30% of consumers may shift to VoIP by 2010, he said: “Keep your eyes on the prize.”