There are a lot of ways to get in touch with Patrik Falstrom.
He’s got telephone, mobile phone, fax machine, e-mail and snail mail addresses. It’s quite a lot of numbers, and it can take quite a while to hit the right one. Right now Falstrom, a consulting engineer with Cisco Systems Inc., is attending a conference in Italy, but there’s no way for anyone to know that unless they get in touch with him-which can be difficult, to say the least.
That’s why Falstrom came up with an idea to make communications much, much easier. It combines the simplicity of an 11-digit telephone number with the ubiquity of the Internet.
It’s called Enum, and it would make one 11-digit number the basis for all types of communications, including fax, e-mail and phone. It’s a real, working way to unify communications. But, like everything in the telecommunications industry, it faces some significant obstacles.
Falstrom’s idea is to turn telephone numbers into Internet addresses. The Internet address would house all other contact information, such as e-mail addresses or pager numbers. An incoming message would be routed to the correct destination depending on what type of communication it is and the user’s preferences.
For instance, an e-mailer could send a message to the 11-digit number and it would be forwarded to the receiver’s proper e-mail inbox. A telephone user would call the number and-depending on the receiver’s preferences-the call would be forwarded to the correct device, be it a landline phone, a mobile phone or a pager. The receiver could set his or her preferences on the Internet, and could change those preferences depending on the situation. Falstrom could set his preferences so incoming calls would be routed to his hotel in Italy, or he could simply let people know he’s out of the country. The system could even route specific incoming calls to specific devices, sending a boss’ e-mail to a text-enabled mobile phone or a spouse’s telephone call to an answering machine-or visa versa.
The Enum service uses established phone numbers for the Internet address, but reverses the order. RCR Wireless News’ main number, for instance, is 1-303-733-2500. The Enum Internet address for that number would be 0.0.5.2.3.3.7.3.0.3.1.e164.arpa, according to Internet Engineering Task Force specifications. The Internet site could house all of RCR’s pertinent information.
“What Enum is going to give the industry is a global directory on the Internet,” said Matthew Wald, vice president of IP services for NeuStar Inc., a company that has been heavily involved in the creation of the Enum standard.
The Enum system looks good on paper, and has the backing of the IETF, a telecommunications standards organization. However, it crosses between the heavily regulated telephone industry and the wildly open Internet, and it’s still unclear exactly how it would emerge from the planning stages.
“No decisions have been made,” said Lori Whitted, vice president of marketing and business development for VeriSign Inc.’s global registry services. VeriSign, along with partner Telcordia Technologies Inc., is also involved with Enum issues. “I know a lot of discussions are taking place.”
Falstrom said two critical factors must be decided before the Enum standard can be implemented.
First, the service operates through country codes, and the nations in each country code will have to come to a consensus over the control of the Enum database on the Internet. The United States and Canada, for example, share the same country code. Falstrom said it’s unclear who would settle potential disputes among nations in each country code.
Second, the nations in each country code must decide who will operate the Enum database-whether it will be a government, a public agency or a private third-party operator.
“This process is not defined as far as I know,” Falstrom wrote in an e-mail.
In the United States, it’s unclear exactly which part of the government would have jurisdiction over the Enum database. The Federal Communications Commission, the Commerce Department and the Federal Trade Commission all oversee various parts of what the Enum system represents.
And once those various governmental agencies come to a consensus, they must also decide who will operate the Enum database-a public body or a private company.
NeuStar and VeriSign are betting the government decides to let private companies operate the database. And both companies are now strutting their stuff in an effort to convince officials that they would make a good steward of the Enum database.
“We are prepared today to offer services across the board,” VeriSign’s Whitted said. “It’s a natural for us.”
“We think that we are very uniquely positioned,” NeuStar’s Wald said.
And indeed both companies are uniquely positioned. NeuStar now oversees the master list of telephone numbers in North America, while VeriSign controls the distribution of the .com, .net and .org Internet addresses.
Both companies have also started public tests of the Enum standard, and have invited interested companies to try out the system and design applications for it-all in an effort to be ready if and when the government gives the green light.
If the Enum standard gets off the ground, the wireless industry will be in a unique position to take advantage of what it can offer, Wald said.
Since each Enum phone number will be linked to an Internet address, wireless Internet devices will be better able to access information. Wireless devices also have more communication features, such as voice and text-an added incentive with the Enum system. Also, it will be easy to access Enum Internet sites with wireless Internet because they’re made up of 11-digit phone numbers. And with the advent of faster networks and advanced applications, streaming video and multimedia messages could be routed through the Enum system.
“I think that there will be more benefits to wireless end-user subscribers,” Wald said.
