What does ENUM mean?

ENUM is an acronym originated from Telephone Number Mapping. It makes the user available anywhere in the world with the same phone number in the shortest and cheapest way. The general idea beyond ENUM is to combine international phone system (PSTN) with internet addressing. ENUM connects a phone number to an internet address that can be an URL or IP address, transmitted through DNS system. So the owner of the ENUM number can give where the call should be routed with the aid of DNS entries. Furthermore, different routes can be given to different types of calls. For instance, a call can be routed to a different place if the caller party is a fax machine. ENUM requires to be supported by the caller device.

ENUM numbers should be registered like a domain name. Now, more VoIP provider offers this feature free.

ENUM is a new standard and it has not gained wide popularity, yet. This technology is able to revolutionize communication.

There are three types of it:

  • Public ENUM
  • Private ENUM
  • Carrier ENUM

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