VoIP and ENUM

ENUM goes commercial in Austria

RTR (the Austrian Regulator) and enum.at announced today officially in a common press confernce the planned launch of a commercial ENUM service in Austria.

The corresponding press releases can be found (in German) at enum.at Presseinformation (PDF) and RTR Presseinformation (PDF)

During the press conference two presentations where given:
Präsentation ENUM_was ist das.pdf (2986,77 kB)
and
Präsentation ENUM 24082004.pdf (553,99 kB)

The major reason for the press conference was the presentation of the contract between RTR and enum.at regarding the operation of the ENUM Tier 1 Registry. The contract is also available at the RTR-webpage:
ENUM_Vertrag.pdf (206,3 kB)

Sorry, the contract is currently only available in German, and English version is under translation.

The contract is about the ENUM Tier 1 Registry operation, but also gives obligations for the contracts between the ENUM Tier 1 Registry and the Registrars.

It also defines the number ranges that will be available in ENUM and the validation and identification required for the different number ranges.

The number ranges in ENUM will be:

-geographic numbers
-private networks (05)
-mobile numbers (06xx)
-non-geographic fixed numbers (0720)
-ENUM-enabled numbers (0780)
-freephone numbers (0800)

The validation and identification methods differ for the different number ranges, potential examples are given in the annex B of the contract.

The contract also defines the data stored at the ENUM Tier 1 registry for each delegated number ("WHOIS capability"). In short: For control and escrow purposes the subscriber identity (name and address) is stored at the ENUM Tier 1 Registry (for numbers requiring identification), but not available for the general public. Publicly available is only the fact that the number is delegated and the registrar.

This allows also for ENUM delegations without identification, given proper validation (e.g. for mobile prepaid numbers with SMS validation).