Subject: [Enum] Does User ENUM provide end user value as it stands?

From: "Lee Dryburgh" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 08:11:56 +0100

Hi Folks.

I've been struggling for much of this year to find a digital identity,
which would service the real-time applications I have in mind, and is
likely to be deployed. Lately my attention has been on ENUM as a
candidate.

I'm concerned that User ENUM will not see widespread adoption because
AFAIS ENUM as it stands holds very questionable value for the end
user. Which demographic of people do we see buying ENUM numbers and
why? I strongly suspect that the market has changed since ENUM was
devised - primarily the rise of Skype and others (including PSTN call
in functionality) and the shine coming off SIP.

I see huge potential value in E.164 (as a namespace/identity),
particularly when stored in DNS. But what I do not see, is what User
ENUM has to offer today that would generate adoption. In short, where
is the value for the end subscriber?

I appreciate the feedback from the ENUM community some weeks back on
whether ENUM was anti-competitive and hope to receive feedback on this
topic as well (end user value/adoption).

Many Regards

Lee

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From: Jim Reid <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 13:47:08 +0100

On Sep 12, 2006, at 08:11, Lee Dryburgh wrote:

> Which demographic of people do we see buying ENUM numbers and why?

This is supposed to be a list for protocol engineers, not  
marketroids. :-)

IMO, nobody will buy a user ENUM delegation in the same way as they  
buy a domain name in .com or whereever, even though the same roles  
and entities -- registrars, resellers, service providers and  
registries -- are involved. People will get an ENUM registration  
bundled with some higher-level service offering which is underpinned  
by ENUM. That could be VoIP. Or it could be IM. Or integrated  
messaging. Or some combination of these. Or.... If I'm right, the  
demographic for ENUM will ultimately be everyone that uses such  
services or "owns" a telephone number. The public won't even know an  
ENUM entry is there, just as they have no real understanding of the  
IMEI and SIMM serial numbers that underpin mobile telephony.

> I strongly suspect that the market has changed since ENUM was

Since there has been almost no user ENUM market to date, there is no  
market to change. :-) The uptake of Skype and other VoIP/IM services  
changes nothing IMO because they don't offer a generic solution to  
the rendezvous problem. If I'm on Google's VoIP service and you're on  
Skype's, how to I know how and where to find you and how do we  
establish some sort of communication between us? Or how can I find  
out you won't take a Skype or PSTN call but can be reached on say  
Yahoo's IM service? This is precisely where ENUM comes in.

> is the value for the end subscriber?

Perhaps from all these sexy digital identity solutions you have up  
your sleeve? :-)