Serious Portability Issues with .Mobi
Dear Ritva, On April 29th you wrote under Concern #5: Registrars Bypassed: 'mTLD is also planning to enable portability for names as has recently been mandated by regulators for phone number portability in many countries. We feel that being proactive about this flexibility is important for end user adoption.'
How will Mobi-JV deal with portability? For instance, would a Vodafone customer (i.e. BillClinton(at)vodafone.mobi) become BillClinton(at)tmobile.mobi when he moves to T-Mobile?
If this is the case, then each time a .mobi name or number is first registered with one operator the same name or number must be frozen simultaneously across all other .mobi operators to ensure uniqueness.
This portability issue raises the following questions:
(1) What is Mobi-JV's exact plan regarding portability of .mobi names between mobile network operators?
(2) What infrastructure will Mobi-JV put into place to cross check name availability?
(3) Who will control the central database operation for all the operators, and the exploitation of its significant data?
(4) How will ICANN Accredited Registrars fit into this very powerful subscriber/operator model?
(5) Will the new Operator Registration Center be an ICANN accredited registrar?
(6) Does Vodafone intend creating on Day-1 all .mobi names (and/or telephone numbers) that correspond to its current 120 million subscriber base? That is: 120mnames(at)vodafone.mobi, or more if numbers are also included. Presumably, they will want to ensure that all Vodafone subscriber names are converted and registered first in .mobi, before they are registered and frozen via other operators. Exactly how will this critical allocation system work, and how will market dominance be avoided?
(7) Will non-operators (e.g. AOL) be part of a portability registration scheme?
(8) Will operators give equal network access and entitlement to individuals and companies with registrations on the second-level of .mobi? Will BillClinton(at)ISP.mobi be treated on operator's networks the same as BillClinton(at)vodafone.mobi?
Could you please clarify these points.
Andrew Goldman
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