Re: data point - anonymous E.164 number usage

[James Seng <]

Ah, just asking...because I am not sure what's the point.

One of the possible ENUM deployment is using existing block and 
therefore, the synchronization become important. (The other is just use 
a new block which will make this discussion totally irrelevant)

As someone noted, you don't really need to *know* who is owning the 
number, just who is the user of the number. And there are couple of ways 
to verify it. One way I can think of is when someone claim right over a 
number, you actually call that number, give him a machine generated 
voice code which he has to entered to verify himself.

Of course, this is not foolproof ...

-James Seng

Adrian Georgescu wrote:

> James,
>
> The point is that before a model of authentication and authorization is 
> designed for a specific market, it is advisable to take a look out there 
> "in the real world" to see if or to which extent the effort is 
> justified. Otherwise, we could delay or block the introduction of a new 
> technology just because paper-work requires effort which does not 
> compensate what the end service delivers (cost > benefit).
>
> Adrian
>
> On 27 Feb 2004, at 01:16, James Seng wrote:
>
> > And the point is?...
> >
> > Michael Haberler wrote:
> >
> > > In the context of validation of numbers for ENUM, I have tried to 
> > > estimate the amount of mobile users which have totally anonymously 
> > > bought a prepaid SIM card, or in other words, users of E.164 numbers 
> > > which have no trace at all in a phonebook or other records.
> > > In the EU, all countries except Germany, Hungary and Italy permit 
> > > totally anonymous purchase of prepaid SIM cards. This indicates that 
> > > about 65% of the EU population have access to anonymous mobile 
> > > service (even in Italy, just a taxpayer code is needed which is not 
> > > subscriber data but allows to track down a user for law enforcement - 
> > > but lets leave that out for the sake of argument; in France I 
> > > understand a record is made for purposes of recovering a lost SIM 
> > > card but not for proof of identity).
> > > There are about 400 Million mobile users in Europe, and penetration 
> > > of prepaid is about 40%. Assuming that nobody registers if he doesnt 
> > > have to, and multiplying those figures a ballpark estimate is that 
> > > *there are about 100 Million E.164 numbers in use in Europe without 
> > > any subscriber data just through the use of prepaid SIM cards.
> > > *-Michael