ENUM Domains

ENUM Domain – What Is It?

ENUM is derived from the term telephone number mapping. ENUM domains make Internet and telecommunication services available under a single telephone number. Under a single ENUM domain, a person's business and home phone, mobile phone, fax, business and private e-mail addresses, video conference addresses or websites may be addressed. The application that is being used at a given moment to get into contact with someone identifies the destination address that corresponds to the ENUM domain. Thus, ENUM automatically ensures that the message is sent to the appropriate device.

Examples:

  • E-mail program: e-mail address
  • Telephone call: fixed-line phone, mobile phone or IP phone

ENUM Domain – How Does it Work?

ENUM makes use of the Domain Name System (DNS). The linking of telecommunication resources and the Internet is achieved by registering an ENUM domain for a telephone number. For example: The telephone number +49 12345678 is assigned to the ENUM domain 8.7.6.5.4.3.2.1.9.4.arpa, including the domain holder's various communication services.

Since 2006, ENUM domains of the German number space have been registered by DENIC. The ENUM domains administered by DENIC under the German country code +49 are under 9.4.e164.arpa.

An ENUM domain for a particular telephone number can only be registered by the person holding that number. For ENUM domain registrations, DENIC's ENUM Domain Terms and Conditions and ENUM Guidelines apply.

In order to ensure that an ENUM domain is actually registered by the legitimate holder of the corresponding telephone number, DENIC provides a Complaint Procedure.

Read on to learn how :

More information:

Administrative Background Information:

  • The ENUM protocol was developed by the ENUM Working Group of the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) and documented in the Internet standard RFC3761.
  • E.164 is the standard of ITU (International Telecommunications Union). It describes the international numbering plan..arpa (address and routing parameter area) is a Top Level Domain that is used for infrastructure services.
  • The central registry for e164.arpa is RIPE NCC in Amsterdam.

ENUM Domain Request

[Translate to English:] ENUM Domainabfrage