asterisk users - Nov 2003 - The internet needs a dialing code..

It seems to me that ITSP's like to use a US dialing code eg 1-xxx

Wouldn't it be cool to have an Internet dialing code??

I don't know what the structures are or how the allocations work but it 
would be so cool to know that 1-xxx was USA , 44-xxx was UK and yy-xxx 
was an internet phone.. That way the whole internet phone space could be 
consolidated into a single dialing structure and as VoIP takes over the 
world there will be a single dialing standard for the whole world..

The trick would be the allocation of the xxx part because when there are 
10 000 ITSP's one day the 5 digit number will be a pain in the butt.. 
the system would also have to be fair with everyone getting a 4 digit 
number so you won't get people fighting over the single digits.. Maybe 
using longitude and latitude of the ITSP would be the easiest or some 
other planetary grid reference system..

Anyway it was just a thought I had..

Later..

> Wouldn't it be cool to have an Internet dialing code??
The ITU reserved a code for international networks. It is 882 follow by
two digits to distinguish the networks. Last time I checked it was
difficult to apply unless you were a multinational corporation.

Thilo

Good idea :)

Also, Oftel is planning 055. code specifically to be used for VOIP...

Ta

SJ

>It seems to me that ITSP's like to use a US dialing code eg 1-xxx
>
>Wouldn't it be cool to have an Internet dialing code??
>
>I don't know what the structures are or how the allocations work but 
>it would be so cool to know that 1-xxx was USA , 44-xxx was UK and 
>yy-xxx was an internet phone.. That way the whole internet phone 
>space could be consolidated into a single dialing structure and as 
>VoIP takes over the world there will be a single dialing standard 
>for the whole world..
>
>The trick would be the allocation of the xxx part because when there 
>are 10 000 ITSP's one day the 5 digit number will be a pain in the 
>butt.. the system would also have to be fair with everyone getting a 
>4 digit number so you won't get people fighting over the single 
>digits.. Maybe using longitude and latitude of the ITSP would be the 
>easiest or some other planetary grid reference system..
>
>Anyway it was just a thought I had..
>
>Later..
In the NANP (North America) I have heard it said by a NANP member 
(board member?  I don't remember his actual title) that there will 
"never, ever be an Internet-only area code."  Now, this could change, 
of course, since he was only one person.  There are already area 
codes for "special" uses, such as area code 500, which could be 
converted for use via ENUM delegation.  This is up for discussion, 
and requires lots of political wrangling by people who are (for the 
most part) led by TDM-based ILEC/RBOC/IXC interests (which are 
assuredly in opposition to VoIP initiatives.)

Internationally, there is already an officially sanctioned country 
code for Universal Telecommunications Services, and it's +878.  There 
is quite a bit of activity now in moving that area code from the ITU 
sanctioning (which happened a few weeks ago) and now moving towards 
commercial implementation.

There are a few people on this list would would be better suited to 
speak on this than myself (<cough>Otmar<cough>) but I have high
hopes
for seeing a commercially available +878 number allocation 
registrar(s) available by summer of 2004, perhaps earlier.

JT

> There are a few people on this list would would be better suited to 
> speak on this than myself (<cough>Otmar<cough>) but I have high
hopes
> for seeing a commercially available +878 number allocation 
> registrar(s) available by summer of 2004, perhaps earlier.
Are those numbers to be assigned to the end customer or allocated to
carriers? Could you point me to ITU documentation about it?

Regards,

Thilo

Even more cool is to start using ENUM. There's a good new article on how to
start doing
that on the Wiki, not contributed by me.

Since the ENUM tree is not very active, only experiments in some countries, we
could start
building our own Asterisk/IAXtel ENUM-like tree. One problem though is that if
you call me by ENUM,
you'll get a SIP URL that your Asterisk won't be able to handle. As soon
as outbound SIP
url is fixed, as well as calling IAX by URL, we'll be able to use Asterisk
to
* Automatically off-load outbound calls to VoIP (ENUM will tell if the phone
number you're
   trying to call is available on the net through SIP, H.323 or IAX)
* Connect our IAX servers and networks automagically.

ENUM is a magic solution for building structures like the one you're
suggesting, WipeOut.

The article
http://www.voip-info.org/tiki-index.php?page=Asterisk%20E164%20Call%20Routing

Reference on the EnumLookup command with examples from nic.at enum trials:
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+cmd+EnumLookup

/Olle