[enum-wg] The ENUM Federation: activities, website etc.

Jim and I have a slightly different (but not contradictory) list of reasons
why user ENUM failed or never got traction but, otherwise, +1.

In the long term, that is probably A Good Thing for users and the Internet.
Except for an interesting (and unresolved) internationalization issue, ENUM
mostly makes more sense as a
transition strategy than as a permanent arrangement.   That is
for precisely the reasons Jim mentions: E.164 is, in practice, heavily tied
to long-standing operational practices, business models. assumptions about
"ownership", and other characteristics of the PSTN that don't map nicely
onto the Internet (or any other network based on flexible routing of
datagrams).  To the extent to which we focus on user ENUM (or E.164
generally) as an important element of the Internet going forward, we
encourage such things as assumptions or debates about why ITU should have
control over peering and routing policies and perhaps even authorization of
carriers and services.  I hope we all understand why we don't want to go
there.

>From a slightly different point of view, user ENUM has not been
a failure but a brilliant success for the key element of its design.  It
institutionalized the TPC (Internet fax) model and showed how it was
possible to have an effective and public mechanism that used
mostly-conventional Internet tools at the VoIP - PSTN boundary.  It would
have been quite bad had we not been able to show proof of concept at that
boundary.  But, if the long-term result is that people use VoIP and other
Internet-based mechanisms for communication in preference to the PSTN or
gateways to the PSTN, that is success, not cause for worrying about bringing
user ENUM back to life.

Just my opinion, of course.
    John
[RS> ] John .. I totally agree but the odd thing is that 6116 as a carrier
numbering database technology is working and working pretty well.  The new
driver is the end of TDM and SS7 signaling. The Class X gear in the network
is literally starting to crumble.  The PSTN, at least in North America, is
clearly evolving into the Public SIP Network. You are absolutely correct
that this is starting to complicate the WCIT discussion. If "telephony" is
using IP then ITU-T thinks its theirs.