Technology, the Internet and the Demand for NANP Numbers

1
Technology, the Internet and the Demand for NANP
Numbers

• J. Scott Marcus
• Senior Advisor for Internet Technology
• Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis,
  FCC
• The opinions expressed are my own, and do not
  necessarily reflect the views of the FCC or any
  of its commissioners.

2
Technology, the Internet and the Demand for
NANP Numbers

• Factors that might decrease demand for numbers
• Factors that might increase demand for numbers
• The transition to the brave new world

3
Factors That Might Decrease Demand

• Huge interest in Voice over IP (VoIP)
• Conventional phone numbers?
• Use of SIP addresses?
• What is a phone call?
• VoIP -gt Everything over IP
• Telephone -gt intelligent device
• Decreasing relevance of geography to numbers.
• Short messages (SMS)

4
Factors That Might Increase Demand

• A multiplicity of services.
• Wired, wireless, Internet,
• Substitution of calls, but not of services.
• ENUM a mapping from telephone numbers to
  electronic services
• Associates a subscribers phone number with a
  ranked list of Internet-based services that can
  be used to reach him/her.
• ENUM requires no changes to the North American
  Numbering Plan, nor to international E.164
  numbering.

5
How Does ENUM Work?

• The design of ENUM is based on the Internets
  Domain Name System (DNS).
• www.fcc.gov
• www.amazon.com
• www.harvard.edu
• Instead of .com or .gov, ENUM uses .e164.arpa
• The DNS works from right (most significant) to
  left (least significant), unlike phone numbers.
• Consequently, ENUM entries look like this
• 1.1.6.0.8.1.4.2.0.2.1.e164.arpa to represent
  [phone]

6
ENUM and Numbering

• ENUM uses existing NANP numbers. It does not
  necessarily imply any change at all to the rate
  of number exhaustion.
• The mapping from phone numbers to individuals is
  not one-to-one in either direction.
• Wireline call a PLACE
• Wireless call an INDIVIDUAL
• Will people simply use phone numbers that they
  already have?
• Will people demand new individual numbers?

7
In the Long Run

• Will phone numbers become less important over
  time?
• Or will they simply take on a somewhat different
  meaning?

8
The transition to the brave new world

• In what time frame do the factors that might
  decrease the emphasis on numbers operate?
• In what time frame do the factors that might
  increase the emphasis on numbers operate?
• What are the impacts on numbering as we migrate
  from the old world to the new?