[enum-wg] ENUM Adoption - Does a business case matter?

Hi Ray!

 > I have written an ENUM Client for Android which is due for imminent
 > release.

That opens up ENUM for at least 0,5% of all mobile phone users 
worldwide. Or am I too optimistic.

No, sorry, don't get me wrong. This *does* make sense, but I hope you 
agree it's not the answer to the problem. The makers of the more 
widespread handsets will not implement something like that guess for 
that reason, knowing that the majority of handsets are distributed 
through the network operators' channels.

Two technical questions:

1.) Making the lookup does require your handset to have a GPRS / 3G 
Internet connection, right?
2.) If the result of the lookup is sip:someone at mysipprovider.com, how do 
you deliver the call. Again over IP? You know that you will have a worse 
sound quality than GSM that way and that you will violate the contract 
conditions of I guess 75% of all mobile operators that way?

I mean, you may not care. But the discussion here is about widespread 
adoption. I can see the case where if an app like yours spreads (it 
could possibly we written for iPhones, S60 handsets, etc.) an operator 
may just decide to block all SIP traffic on his networks. That wouldn't 
necessarily make a good case for ENUM, would it?

In other words; I'd like to see a robust and officially supported 
solution which would work for widespread deployment with (sorry) 
clueless people.

Just to give you another example:

There are some ENUM gateways in Germany. You can dial a landline phone 
number and you will get a new ENUM dial tone. Many people have plans 
which give them unlimited or very cheap calls from their mobile to 
landlines, so you can call call from your handset in Germany to a SIP 
address in China virtually free.

Guess what ... Some network operators recently started to simply block 
those access numbers. To make it a bit more complete, they also blocked 
some other services such as calling card access numbers, phone 
conferencing services and Podcast to Phone services.

User's of those kind of services have complained to the regulator, who 
didn't feel like saying anything about this. And given my understanding 
EU telco regulation (I can't speak for other parts of the world here) I 
wonder if the use of a regular geographic landline number to provide a 
gateway to VoIP targets would at all be in line with telecommunication 
laws of if this has just been tolerated in the past, as many things had 
been tolerated and are strictly enforced now.

If you want ENUM acceptance, bring the subject up with the EU. They gave 
the GSM operators trouble re their roaming charged; they may also do 
something about ENUM.

Regards,
Torsten


Ray.Bellis at nominet.org.uk schrieb:
> 
>  > * It is hard for the calling party to make an ENUM call. I can only
>  > speak from my perspective in Germany and a number of other countries,
>  > mostly in Europe. Like many people, I am making 95% of my phone calls
>  > from my mobile. As there is no single mobile operator in the world who
>  > does ENUM lookups on outgoing calls (AFAIK, correct me) my only chance
>  > would be two-stage dialling, i.e. call an access number, then call the
>  > number I want to talk to.
> 
> I have written an ENUM Client for Android which is due for imminent 
> release.
> 
> It integrates directly with the Contact / Dialer application (indeed 
> anywhere you can dial a number from).  Whenever you dial a full E.164 
> number with suitable IP connectivity it automatically performs an ENUM 
> lookup.
> 
> If there are no results, the call proceeds as normal.  If there are ENUM 
> results, they are presented in a (sorted) list, so the end user can 
> choose which alternate contact method to use.  The application also 
> offers the option to bypass the ENUM results altogether and call the 
> original number.
> 
> I'll send more details (including a download link) once it's formally 
> announced.
> 
> kind regards,
> 
> Ray
> 
> -- 
> Ray Bellis, MA(Oxon) MIET
> Senior Researcher in Advanced Projects, Nominet
> e: ray at nominet.org.uk, t: +44 1865 332211