Telephone numbers become your domain

Posted on 27 Sep 2000 at 18:16

Telcordia Technologies and VeriSign Global Registry Services are working on the first large-scale test of an emerging technology called ENUM that integrates telephone numbers with Internet domain names.

They will jointly develop an ENUM directory and carry out an open system trial based on the proposed ENUM standard (it is currently being considered as a standard by the Internet Engineering Task Force).

ENUM lets an end user type a telephone number into his Web browser and pull up the corresponding email address, URL or IP address.

ENUM-based services would allow one telephone number to serve as a single point of contact for a range of communications devices, such as PCs, mobile phones and handheld computers.

"Today we have cluttered business cards with cellphone numbers, email addresses and fax numbers," says Pat Conley, director of business development at VeriSign. "In the future, we could have a single address and let the network resolve that address."

Telcordia and VeriSign hope that ENUM will play a key role for the anticipated convergence of public switched telephone networks and the Internet.

For more information about ENUM, see its website.

Author: Alun Williams