iNum, the global area code for the Internet needs ”Ambassadors” in all regions of the world to proactively encourage and educate their own local service providers and carriers to route +883 calls correctly.
As an iNum Ambassador you will contribute your ideas as a volunteer to improve the initiative, and share your experiences with a growing community of IP Communications enthusiasts.
How can you get started? First of all, please start by registering and using the Ambassador section of the iNum forum, which is segmented geographically.
What kind of help can you contribute? Initially we want to just give the already active informal community of iNum supporters a bit more structure.
An example: Your local mobile company does not yet support voice or SMS to iNum, or is overcharging for it. The best way to fix this is for the local customers to communicate directly with their provider. You can let them know that they can get free termination to the iNum range, and what you want as a customer of their service. Then post this action on the forum, including the response from your service provider in the correct regional category. Let other people know about it on twitter with #inumambassador tags. Get your friends and the community involved.
Just remember to please be diplomatic at all times!
Based on customer and community feedback, the iNum initiative phased out the audio Turing test on the public ENUM calling method that occurred on the first inbound ENUM call, and periodic calls thereafter.
While we remain concerned in general about being able to monitor and prevent SPIT nuisance calls in a free calling environment, there were no indications of any such problems, and the test was simply too acoustically challenging.
There are still methods for individual iNum providers to control ENUM inbound calling, and even block it entirely, if there is such a requirement.
So with this change it will be much easier for those with ordinary human hearing capabilities to enjoy free calls to iNum numbers via ENUM. For any non-humans interested in audio challenges, there is always this band.
This week ippi, a leading VoIP provider based in France, and Voxbone announced that ippi will be offering iNum numbers to its over 150,000 clients. This is great news for the iNum community, which we hope will be enjoyed by the many ippi subscribers around the world.
A special aspect of their approach is that they are proactively assigning the iNum numbers to all existing and new customers. So all you have to do is register and your account is set to go.
Note to new ippi subscribers, after you register – look under “my numbers” and you’ll see your iNum there.
Here is the full text of the release:
ippi to Give All Customers iNum® Numbers From Voxbone
French VoIP Provider With 150,000 Users Offers Free Phone Numbers in the Global Area Code for IP Communications
BRUSSELS – Dec. 1, 2010 – Voxbone today announced that ippi, a global VoIP provider headquartered in France, with 150,000 customers, will be giving all its subscribers free iNum® numbers from Voxbone. With customers in 100 countries, ippi has a leading spot among SIP providers in the French-speaking world and has been experiencing 100 percent annual growth since 2007.
iNums are phone numbers with the global area code for IP communications (+883). By providing every customer an iNum in addition to the customer’s regular phone number, ippi will extend the subscriber’s range of free calling to include communication with all other iNum users, anywhere in the world. iNum numbers are distributed and routed by a growing list of carriers, service providers and enterprises. Where not routed by a local carrier, iNums also can be reached by the iNum initiative’s network of local access numbers in 45 countries.
“We love the innovative concept of iNum and are excited to provide our customers with numbers in the global area code for IP communications,” said ippi CEO Stephane Haddad. “With iNum numbers, our customers will be able to receive voice and SMS from their ippi accounts, ippi Softphones, and ippi mobile apps for Android and iPhone, as well as support new IP communications services in the future.”
“We expect that ippi’s proactive assignment of iNums to each of its customers will encourage broader adoption of these global numbers, as well as help ippi attract more customers and offer new innovative services,” said Hugh Goldstein, Voxbone Director of iNum Business Development. “Consumers and business owners appreciate that iNums are numbers designed to support the full range of IP communication capabilities.”
Voxbone offers iNum numbers and iNum peering to qualifying service providers, and invites IP communications providers to request ranges for their customers via the iNum Web site: www.inum.net.
Following the post last month about iNums being reachable public ENUM query, Rod Ullens CEO of Voxbone will be participating in the RIPE 61 meeting and presenting information about the iNum project to the ENUM Working Group on Thursday, 18 November 2010 at the Westin Excelsior Hotel, Rome, Italy.
A RIPE Meeting is a five-day event where Internet Service Providers, network operators and other interested parties from Europe and the surrounding regions get together for technical discussions and cooperation planning. The RIPE NCC is an independent, not-for-profit membership organisation that supports the infrastructure of the Internet through technical co-ordination in its service region.
Did you know that you can make video telephony calls to iNum numbers? The iNum Project’s SIP infrastructure provides signaling as its default setting, and if you are calling from iNum to iNum, and both sides of the call are on service provider networks that support the compatible video codecs, then media will be point to point.
What is the advantage of using iNums for video telephony? Many in the industry have expressed a wish for an e.164 based identification system for point to point video. SIP URI and proprietary naming systems don’t offer the same flexibility as telephone numbers. Traditional telephone numbers on the other hand may not be able to support advanced IP services like video. INum solves this by providing an e.164 number designed for IP Communications.
The iNum project team would like to invite interested Video Telephony providers, Campus and Enterprise networks to work with us to test these features, distribute free iNum numbers to their clients, and create case studies that will move point to point video telephony to new levels of adoption.
The INum project is now testing ENUM features for iNum numbers. The entire iNum number ranges are registered within the e164.arpa ENUM directory. You can read more about the RIPE (Réseaux IP Européens) working group on e.164 number mapping here. The test is intended to experiment with enabling more carriers and service providers to route +883 calls to iNum providers for free.
To quickly test it, enter an iNum number into this handy site, for example . Its also now possible to directly call any iNums via SIP ( sip:+8835100XXXXXXXX@inum.net).
What about security and SPIT prevention? Well, as part of this trial, callers coming in via these features will have to pass an audio Turing test. Its kind of tricky, so have a notepad handy when you try it, write down the code and enter it in after its been read entirely. Additionally, there is an opt-out method for iNum providers that don’t want to accept iNum in calls from ENUM.
Please give it a try and let us know your feedback.
Vonage subscribers – at least in the USA – can directly call iNum numbers. Currently this is free. This short video gives a basic overview of iNum numbers and demonstrates the ease of calling iNums from Vonage.
Pleased to share news today that Rebtel has launched a new iPhone application that will facilitate calling iNum numbers for their customers. Rebtel enables a one-click call by allowing users to generate a local phone number that will map to an iNum for any contact in their address book directly from their handset. As a result, people will be able to call iNums – with no access number or PIN to remember – by clicking on a contact icon from over 50 countries for the cost of a local call.
“Here at Rebtel, we immediately bought into Voxbone’s concept of an ‘area code for Earth,’ as it clearly matches our own vision of making all phone calls local, turning the world into a friendlier place and bringing people closer together,” commented Andreas Bernstrom, CEO of Rebtel. “We’re proud to be an active member of the iNum community and to be providing a hassle-free way of dialing an iNum for the cost of a local call.”
