Around 4 years ago, I came across ENUM.
For those that don't know, ENUM is the name of technological development that will open up VOIP (Internet Telephony) to the masses by combining the traditional telephone system with the Internet. For a more precise definition check out Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_number_mapping
I looked at the technology to see how it worked and how I thought it could work commercially. There's no doubt that it's got huge potential and will almost certainly play a huge part of the future of internet telephony. As a businessman I struggled to see any way of offering a service that would appeal to our customers or the wider general public.
My thoughts were (and still are) that it's going to be very difficult to make a profit from providing an ENUM service because the service only truly works when EVERYONE has an ENUM. Many technically aware customers may consider registering one but without it offering real cost saving, they're unlikely to part with much more than a few quid.
The whole ENUM situation reminds me of Only Fools and Horses where Del Boy is trying to sell the benefits of a fax machine when no one else in Peckham has one.
My view on it all is that until a company like BT offer it for free to every landline customer the service won't reach critical mass. Of course, most of us realise that the Internet is set to revolutionise telephony just as it's revolutionised communication, commerce, entertainment and many other huge parts of our lives. However, until BT surrender to VOIP and embrace new technologies like ENUM it'll seems like it will continue to grow quite slowly in the UK.
Although I struggled to see any commercial opportunity in the technology that didn't stop be placing a few bets on the future and registering what I saw as some key domain names:
enums.co.uk
enumphone.co.uk
enumtelephone.co.uk
And more.
If you're involved in ENUM you might recognise the first domain on the list, it's now being used by SafeNames and I believe they're the leading ENUM supplier in the UK. I sold the domain to SafeNames around a year ago and that seems like it will be the only substantial commercial return we make from the new technology.
You can check out the SafeNames service at http://www.enums.co.uk
Thanks for reading,
Elliott.
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