Prague, Czech Republic, 21 January 2008 – It will be exactly one year tomorrow from the day when the commercial operation of the technology enabling minute-cost-free phone calls was launched. The success of ENUM is evidenced not only by 3,114 domains and 558,765 phone numbers reachable via ENUM for free but also the number of visitors of the ENUM Day conference or the interest of registrars who offer ENUM domains to their clients. In addition, the number of registered domains and phone numbers positions the Czech registry among the largest in the world.

“We are now paying minute fees for our phone calls – as we used to do when paying for data transferred within our Internet connections. By letting the Internet penetrate the telephony and routing more and more calls over the network we are starting a similar revolution in making phone calls. The Czech Republic is one of the countries where a technology enabling this revolution is now fully operational,” explained Pavel Tůma, manager of the ENUM project in the CZ.NIC association. “ENUM managed to find its users in the first year. However, as for every technology innovation, attention of the professionals needs to be complemented with the attention of common users. This is why we want to focus on companies and households in this year to which we will explain what benefits the ENUM technology is to bring.”

What Does ENUM Offer?

ENUM enables its users to achieve significant savings in the general phone communication. If the number called is registered in ENUM, the call will be routed over the Internet instead of the fixed or mobile telephone network. Such call is then established for free. Complete information on how the ENUM technology works as well as information on its utilization options for individuals, companies and service providers is available at http://enum.nic.cz.

ENUM in the Czech Republic – History

The history of ENUM in the Czech Republic began back in June 2003 when the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) allocated the CZ.NIC association the appropriate national domain (.0.2.4.e164.arpa) for phone numbers in fixed and mobile networks in the Czech Republic. Preparations for the launch of ENUM were commenced immediately. In March 2006 the Ministry of Informatics of the Czech Republic appointed the CZ.NIC association with operation of the ENUM technology and launch of a testing operation stage. The testing started on 20 September 2006. From this date on all those who were interested could register their domains at two registrars (KRAXNET, IGNUM). Calls over ENUM were supported in the networks of the telecommunication operators IPEX and CESNET (association of academic institutions). Even at the testing stage, the ENUM technology has been fully functional in the Czech Republic; the testing period was mainly needed to fine-tune the method for registration and validation of ENUM domains for respective phone numbers and to verify the registration system functionality. The registration system testing had its meaning as this was the first time when the FRED system was employed. This system has now been used for over 3 months to administer all domains with .CZ extension

ENUM in the Czech Republic – Overview

• November 2007 – Over 3,000 ENUM domains and 557,600 phone numbers registered.
• January 2007 – Full commercial operation of ENUM launched.
• September 2006 – Official testing operation launched.
• April 2006 – New registration system for the ENUM technology deployed.
• April 2006 – The government of the Czech Republic agreed with the deployment of the ENUM technology
• 2003 – 2006 – Non-official testing operation launched (manual; fee > 100 EUR); 75 domains registered.
• 2003 – The 0.2.4.e164.arpa delegated based on the approval of the Ministry of Informatics of the Czech Republic.