The ITU and govts. shouldn’t manage either technology innovations...

the Reseaux IP Europeens Network Coordination Centre (RIPE NCC) board. Last March, the IT Center looked into setting up the name server for a Danish ENUM domain so users could use the domain name system to direct communications to their Internet Protocol (IP) phones, e-mail and other outlets, Greisen said on a listserv. The IT Center wasn’t sure the idea would catch on because there are so many other domain names, he said, “but I work at a government agency whose mission includes piloting new technology.” Denmark’s telecom regulator was receptive, and the request was sent to RIPE NCC, which manages the ENUM top-level domain e164.arpa. The request then went to the ITU, which handles requests to operate country ENUM domains. The ITU in turn handed the request to the Danish regulator for a decision on who should manage the Danish ENUM domain, Greisen said. The regulator’s response “to this difficult situation was to hand over the case to their resort ministry (for Science, Technology & Development),” Greisen wrote. The ministry decided to hold a public hearing, and Greisen notified 160 organizations. They raised several “good arguments,” he said, including that ENUM name service management should be awarded based on an open tender, and that security, competition and rights should be thoroughly understood before any action was taken. However, he said, the only responses came from large and incumbent telcos, “who have to argue against all change that may threaten their existing businesses.” Small IP telephony companies weren’t at the table, he told us, because: (1) The govt. doesn’t have addresses for small operators because they don’t have to be licensed in Denmark. (2) Even if the small operators heard about the meeting, they would be too busy running their businesses to attend or consider whether ENUM would be useful to them. (3) Even if they found ENUM useful, they might be reluctant to take the time to answer a questionnaire. Greisen said he’s trying to convince the ministry to follow up as quickly as possible with another hearing which smaller companies could attend. ENUM is lagging in other countries as well, Greisen said. Several countries are running or intend to run pilots, but companies are unlikely to sign on to a service that could be temporary, he said. The result is that people are routing around ENUM via Skype and other technologies, leaving small IP telephony companies unable to interconnect as they could on ENUM, he said. The longer ENUM is left hanging, he said, the more likely larger IP telephony providers are to make do without it. Although Greisen doesn’t fault the ITU or the govt. in this case, he said the matter shows that Internet governance shouldn’t be left to either: “While I sometimes have reservations about ICANN, I think ICANN is preferable compared to governments, and setting up a new entity is likely to take time and effort with no reason to believe it would do better than ICANN.”