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ENUM creates many new market opportunities and raises several important policy issues related to the implementation and administration of the ENUM database and services. Recent World Telecommunications Policy Forum 2001 dealt with the emergence of ENUM as an important numbering issue of IP telephony. This paper prepares some important emerging issues of ENUM administration and policy by taking an empirical research approach from the bottom up. We will identify potential key ENUM services, and estimating the size of the service market opportunities created by the availability of PSTN-IP addressing and mapping mechanisms, particularly in the context of IP telephony. Also, we analyze the possible administrative models and relationship scenarios among different ENUM players such as Registry(ies), Registrars, Telephone Service Providers, ENUM Application Service Providers, etc. Then, we will assess the effects of various administrative model architectures of ENUM service by looking at the market opportunities and motivations of the players. From the empirical findings, we will draw the implications on transactions among different kinds of ENUM service providers. Finally, the results of the model analysis will be used for the discussion of policy related issues around the ENUM and IP telephony services. Keywords: IP Telephony, ENUM, Internet Policy, Numbering and Addressing System, Service and Market Study, Administration Model, Empirical Market Study., Comment: 29th TPRC Conference

The Internet Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical name space that enables the assignment of unique, mnemonic identifiers to Internet hosts and the consistent mapping of these names to IP addresses. The root of the domain name system is the top of the hierarchy and is currently managed by a quasi-private centralized regulatory authority, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). This paper identifies and discusses the economic and policy issues raised by competing DNS roots. The paper provides a precise definition of root-competition and shows that multiple roots are a species of standards competition, in which network externalities play a major role. The paper performs a structural analysis of the different forms that competing DNS roots can take and their effects on end-user compatibility. It then explores the policy implications of the various forms of competition. The thesis of the paper is that root competition is caused by a severe disjunction between the demand for and supply of top-level domain names. ICANN has authorized a tiny number of new top-level domains (7) and subjected their operators to excruciatingly slow and expensive contractual negotiations. The growth of alternate DNS roots is an attempt to bypass that bottleneck. The paper arrives at the policy conclusion that competition among DNS roots should be permitted and is a healthy outlet for inefficiency or abuses of power by the dominant root administrator.