The comment from “hta” above makes two claims that I’d
like to address:First, the author “hta” claims that using up one of the 5 – 10
slots for a TLD aimed at solving a critical addressing problem for the Internet-Telephony
industry is “wasteful”. Here is an alternate view:
The convergence
of the PSTN and the Internet is an economic reality that will affect every country
on the planet and every member of the Internet community.
While there are
many valuable uses for the 5 – 10 pending TLD selections, extending the utility of
the DNS to respond to a global addressing challenge for the emerging Internet-Telephony
industry clearly fits into this category.
Second, the author “hta” claims that
competition will exist for “e164.arpa” without action from ICANN”. Here’s an
alternate view:
The “e164.arpa” implementation of ENUM services is the result of
a combined effort by the IETF and the ITU. As a result, the “e164.arpa” implementation
is being presented to the market as “the approved standard TLD” for provisioning
of ENUM services. It is impossible to overstate the power that this validation
carries in the market.
Consider the power of this perspective: “e164.arpa”
is being presented as having the exclusive support of the ITU, the IAB, the IETF
and the 200+ national PSTN regulatory bodies that control telephone numbers on global
basis.
Effective competition simply will not exist in this crucial emerging Internet-Telephony
directory space without the creation of a TLD approved by ICANN.