[Asterisk-Users] e164.org proudly announces PSTN support

[John Todd]

At 12:39 PM +1000 4/27/04, Duane wrote:
>From: Duane <digium at aus-biz.com>
>To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
>Subject: [Asterisk-Users] e164.org proudly announces PSTN support
>
>e164.org is a public name service which provides ENUM.164, a method 
>devised by the IETF and ITU to allow an ordinary telephone to be 
>connected to an Internet type network and provided dialling service 
>from other, regular telephones.
>
>Unlike many other "free" voice over IP systems, e164.org allows 
>users who have a regular telephone line, to also hook themselves up 
>to the Internet without intervention from their regular telephone 
>service provider while still using their "plain old telephone" 
>number instead of a web, IP or some other address.
>
>The system works like this:
>
>     * You dial a telephone number. Example: 1-604-958-6111.
>     * Your VoIP system looks up the number in e164.org. if a match can
>	be found, your call is tried over the Internet, directly to the
>	other subscriber's system.
>     * If a match is not found, or if the call fails, your system can
>	then attempt to dial the number using your regular telephone
>	line.
>
>The example above is just a simple scenario, how your system behaves 
>is dependent on how an Asterisk dial plan (for example) is 
>configured.
>
>To help prevent abuse, all PSTN numbers must be validated first. 
>Simply create an account at e164.org, and select "add your PSTN 
>number". The number you add will be phoned and a Personal ID number 
>will be read out to you. Return to the website, enter your PIN, and 
>viola! Your phone number will be instantly added into the system.
>
>In addition, those without a telephone line can still receive a 
>"free" number from e164.org making it possible for people without 
>phone service to interact with others.
>--
>Best regards,
>  Duane
>
>http://www.cacert.org - Free Security Certificates
>http://www.nodedb.com - Think globally, network locally
>http://www.sydneywireless.com - Telecommunications Freedom
>http://happysnapper.com.au - Sell your photos over the net!
>http://e164.org - Using Enum.164 to interconnect asterisk servers


   Here's a little heads-up on this, folks.

   This service is a very nice idea, and I'm all for it.  Some of you 
are even using my zone of freenum.org for ENUM resolution for 
toll-free numbers in quite a few nations, which uses the same tricks 
that e164.org is using.

   However, just realize that you are NOT subscribing to the "real" 
e164.arpa global tables when you sign up with e164.org (note the 
"arpa" and "org" suffix differences.)  This means that anyone wanting 
to find your ENUM address would need to specifically point their 
resolvers at the nameservers that are being run by e164.org.  This in 
the long run is not a viable solution, just like having separate root 
servers for domain suffixes like ".porn" and ".fun" or whatever are 
similarly Not a Good Thing.  When people talk about "true" ENUM, 
they're talking about the e164.arpa zone.

   You may also have security concerns about this.  Anyone running the 
nameservers with those zones can do a very trivial Man-In-The-Middle 
attack.  I don't disparage Duane's trustworthiness, but it's perhaps 
worthwhile to think of the chain of trust in instances where you 
allocate pointers for vital information through an entity that 
perhaps is an unknown quantity.  (Urk - I just thought of a very very 
evil, very ugly, and fairly trivial bodge of shell scripts, network 
tools, and Asterisk which would allow recording of any call that was 
based on an ENUM query.  I really, really need to get DNSSEC 
implemented...)

   Additionally, the +88299 range that is being handed out has not 
been allocated to e164.org, so these numbers are almost certainly not 
going to be routed globally anytime in the future.  It's like using 
the +1-700 range here in the US (which is how IAXTEL runs) and just 
hoping that nobody has dialplans that ever conflict with the real 
+1-700 number space on the PSTN.  Probably true, but very ugly and 
fragile at best.

   My hope is that the ENUM authorities (typically the PTT's or 
government telephony regulatory agencies) in each nation will make 
something for adding entries into their respective national ENUM 
databases that is as easy as the e164.org entry process.  However, 
knowing the political strife that so often accompanies things like 
this I doubt that will be anytime soon, so maybe e164.org sounds like 
a good idea for a while.

   As a last note, there is an ITU-recognized ENUM "country code" for 
non-geographically allocated devices, it's the +878 aka UPT 
(Universal Personal Telecommunications) range.  Not too many people 
route it globally (though it's free for providers to do so, they 
haven't clued in yet) though I expect to see more routes soon. 
Expect some VoIP providers to start handing out those numbers as 
default numbers shortly, instead of "make-believe-land" numbers. 
(hint, hint)

   In closing, I encourage people to sign up for e164.org's service, 
but be prepared to do this all over again when 'true' e164.arpa comes 
to fruition in your nation.

JT