Nominet is gearing up to launch its truly revolutionary ENUM communications system in the UK, heralding a new era of free calls, ubiquitous VoIP and simplified telecomunications, claims the company.

ENUM is a way of connecting telecoms to the web, allowing users to contact people on other devices and software applications using a phone number translated into a domain name. Using ENUM, which stands for telephone number mapping, VoIP calls are given the intelligence they currently lack to seek out other VoIP systems over the Internet and make free calls. Also, ENUM-translated phone numbers are to be published on a country code basis on the Internet, simplifying communications.

Jay Daley, Director of IT at Nominet, said: "This is providing the same control over calls as you already have over emails. It's important to make people understand where VoIP is going to go. ENUM is just part of the DNS. It turns numbers into domain names and gives the user control over the call."

The opportunity for the channel is significant, Daley stated, as resellers that sell VoIP will be able cross sell ENUM services. They will also be able to become the required validation agency to authenticate owners of phone numbers prior to ENUM translation, adding margin to the deal as they will not have to pay a third party to carry out that part of the process.

Whereas now, while internal calls for a business on a VoIP network are simple, to connect to another company using VoIP a telephone network provider has to be involved to connect calls, which costs money. Between July and August, Nominet, which has won the ENUM contract for the 0044 country code for five years, will be the central provider of ENUM to allow companies to connect calls without the assistance of a service provider.

Daley added: "Many will benefit from this. Call centres with 0800 or 0845 numbers currently end up paying people's phone bills for them. If they publish their ENUM instead, people can call them for free. Large supply chains like Tesco, with thousands of suppliers, have phone bills that must total a few million a year. As these companies are so large they can mandate ENUM on their supply chain, telling suppliers they must move to VoIP and ENUM. That will save money and help the suppliers out in the long run. Also, multiple site businesses, like law firms, will be able to make calls cheaply as it's easier to connect to new sites over ENUM than new sites on VoIP alone. Some companies will be able to use their existing Internet connection, while others may need more bandwidth," he added, pointing out a further opportunity for resellers.

Through a simple algorithm, phone numbers can be turned into ENUM domains. The code is: 01865 332211 becomes 1.1.2.2.3.3.5.6.8.1.4.4.e164.arpa where ‘44' is the UK's international dialling code, ‘e164' is the name of the telephone numbering system and ‘.arpa' is the Internet infrastructure equivalent of .uk or .com. As computers can understand this code and connect to this address in a fraction of a second, calls finally become a fast, stable and cheap link from telecoms to data.

When the user dials an ENUM number over a VoIP network, a device on the network translates that number into the corresponding domain name. The user then makes the call directly to the company's server with no communications provider involvement, placing the end users in control. The only group of resellers that may feel the pinch on ENUM are those that sell minutes, Daley warned. He said: "For some resellers, whose income is based on per minute billing, this will be a serious threat."