  ENUM effectively bridges the telephone and Internet worlds by placing
telephone numbers from the ITU Rec. E.164 public telecommunication numbering
plan into the Internet Domain Name System (DNS) as domain names. ENUM
potentially presents significant public policy issues at both the domestic and
international levels. Ultimately, it should not matter whether ENUM is
approached as a telecommunications issue or an Internet issue because: (1) they
are becoming the same thing technically, and (2) they engage the same global
public interests. For the same reasons as apply to traditional
telecommunications, and even to the Internet itself, public oversight of ENUM
naming, numbering, and addressing resources is justified both by technical
necessity and the interests of consumer protection (particularly personal
privacy) and competition at higher service layers. A single, coordinated global
DNS domain for at least Tier 0 (the international level) of the ENUM names
hierarchy should be designated by public authorities. Many of the technical
characteristics and policy considerations relevant at the ENUM Tier 0 and 1
zones are also directly applicable to the Internet's IP address space and DNS
root (or Tier 0) zone - key shared elements of the Internet's logical
infrastructure. Despite the fundamentally international nature of the
Internet's logical infrastructure layer, and the purported privatization of
administration of its IP address space and the DNS, Internet governance is not
yet truly international. The ENUM policy debate illustrates the need for
authoritative international public oversight of public communications network
logical infrastructure, including that of traditional telecommunications, the
Internet, and ENUM.
