Several postings to this list have raised questions regarding
the relationship between the IAB/ITU sponsored “e164.arpa”
implementation of the ENUM protocol and the Pulver/NetNumber proposed
“.tel” implementation of the ENUM protocol. In response to
these questions, outlined below are several points of clarification for further
discussion and consideration:
Different Audiences Served: “e164.arpa”
has been generally (although not exclusively) described as an “opt-in
service” that provides for the registration of information by individual telephone
number subscribers. By comparison, “.tel” is a request for a sponsored
TLD for use exclusively by IP Communications Service Providers (IPCSPs), not
individuals. In this regard, “e164.arpa” and “.tel”
are complementary implementations of the ENUM protocol that will meet the needs
of different segments of the Internet community.
Different Policy Requirements For Different Audiences:
“e164.arpa” is a distributed solution that enables each country to
determine whether or not to participate in the “e164.arpa” infrastructure.
Every country that chooses to participate will set its own registration rules
(who is allowed to register), its own provisioning policies (how to register)
and its own pricing policies (what it costs to register). The country
specific model proposed by “e164.arpa” is based on a set of
policies that make perfect sense when viewed from the perspective of an
individual registrant residing in a single country. By comparison, IPCSPs
often provide services to groups of individuals and/or enterprise customers the
cut across multiple country boundaries. Consistent registration,
provisioning and pricing policies are practical business requirements for
IPCSPs. The “.tel” sTLD Board of Directors will define a common
set of policies that will meet the needs of IPCSPs for use exclusively by
IPCSPs.
National Sovereignty: The
Pulver/NetNumber “.tel” proposal fully respects every country’s
right to define and administer their segment of the E.164 (telephone number)
addressing space. Under existing country specific rules, E.164 numbers
are distributed to service providers and to individual/enterprise subscribers
for the purpose of enabling communications services. The “.tel”
TLD simply provides an infrastructure for IPCSPs to utilize the E.164 numbers
that have been assigned to them or to their subscribers through existing
country specific rules.
Personal Privacy: The “.tel” sTLD
will not store any information about individual telephone number subscribers in
its Registry and/or WHOIS databases. IPCSPs are the only entities allowed
to register domain names into the “.tel” sTLD. As such, the “.tel”
WHOIS database will only contain information about the identity of the IPCSP that
registered a given domain name.
Data Accuracy: The “.tel” sTLD
is a sponsored TLD for use by IPCSPs. Practical business realities dictate
that data accuracy is a requirement for any IPCSP provisioning information into
the “.tel” sTLD. If the data isn’t accurate it has no
value to the participating IPCSPs. Beyond the obvious self policing business
requirement for accuracy, all IPCSPs will be contractually bound to provision
accurate data and subject to financial penalties as a result of inaccurate
provisioning. Going beyond these protections, the “.tel” sTLD
will provide public access to WHOIS data to provide a simple check and balance
mechanism to prevent inaccurate provisioning by any IPCSP.
Request For A Sponsored TLD: ICANN has requested
proposals for sponsored TLDs that will be used to fulfill currently unmet
addressing needs for a defined subset of the Internet community. The
Pulver/NetNumber “.tel” TLD proposal makes a request for ICANN
oversight of an sTLD that will be utilized by IPCSPs to stimulate the growth of
IP-based communications services. No single implementation of the ENUM
protocol will meet the needs of the entire diverse global communications
industry. Having said this, the “.tel” sTLD will meet the
needs of a meaningful subset of the industry whose needs are not being met by “e164.arpa”.
Douglas Ranalli
Founder, Chief Strategy Officer
NetNumber, Inc.