Prospectus for ENUM Study Group Establishment

Purpose of Establishment

JPNIC has set up the ENUM Study Group as a non-profiting organization to make proposals concerning ENUM management and operation methods and technical standards that suit the situation in Japan and contribute to development of Internet telephony.

Background

IP telephone service using the Internet as a relay network, or Internet telephone service, is expected to become widely used in future. Currently, the ITU-T and IETF are making proposals on technical standards and management and operation procedures for ENUM, which is a protocol for integrated address resolution of telephone numbers on the Internet. In Japan, the "Study Group Concerning Telecommunication Numbers (of the year 2002)" in the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications is discussing the necessity of study of ENUM. In European countries and the United States, voluntary organizations, such as ENUM Forum in the U.S.A. and UK ENUM Group (UKEG) in the UK, have been established to create frameworks of ENUM according to situations in each nation from the viewpoint of industries and they are making various proposals and reports.

Purposes and Milestones for This Group

Activities

• Discussion of ENUM implementation method, operation method and other related items
• Study of technical issues associated with ENUM
• Discussion of institutional issues in ENUM implementation and operations

Handling of results

• Publish results of discussions as a rule.
• Propose results of discussions to the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications, which is the authority supervising telephone numbers.
• Make proposals to standardization organizations, such as The Telecommunication Techonology Committee(TTC/JAPAN) and The Internet Engineering Task Force(IETF).

Milestones of activities

• Established in September, 2002.
• The first report is to be published in November, 2002.
• The second report is to be issued and the future plan and organization are to be reviewed.

Official language

The Official language used for study process and results for the group is Japanese in principle. English or other languages may be used for documents that are provided for reference, materials that are proposed to standardization organizations and liaisons with other countries.

Participation in This Group

Companies, groups or individuals who agree with the aim of this group and wish to contribute to its activities can have membership in the group by making application for membership by the end of September, 2002.

Membership Costs And Working Expenses

This group does not have its own accounts, bank account, or assets and its members are not obliged to pay membership costs. Working expenses, communication expenses, documentation and other labor costs associated with activities of this group must be born by members who agree to provide things, service or convenience.

If there is any inconvenience in application of the above rule or if any problem arises concerning share in intellectual property rights and others, its handling must be consulted separately.

Organization

Chairman and Vice Chairman

Chairman and Vice Chairman are appointed as coordinators for this group. Chairman and Vice Chairman are elected from among its members. Chairman is responsible for making efforts to carry out the activities of the group smoothly by establishing subcommittees, supervising their activities, and guiding any subcommittees in which discussion is not progressed properly. Vice Chairman is responsible for assisting Chairman in his duties.

Office

In order to carry out the activities of the group smoothly, an office is set up in Japan Network Information Center.

Study meeting

A meeting is held every month to coordinate study group activities.

Subcommittees

One or more subcommittees can be organized if necessary. Members can register in subcommittees in which they wish to participate in on the precondition that they contribute to such subcommittees. Chairman is appointed in each subcommittee. Subcommittee chairman is elected from among its members and is responsible for managing the subcommittee.

General Meeting

A general meeting can be held if Chairman deems it necessary. Agenda are approved by a large majority of participants. Each registered member (group, company, or individual) has one vote. The following items are determined in the general meeting:

1. Modification of important items of the rules for the ENUM Study Group
2. Items to be separately consulted as stated in Section 4
3. Disorganization of the ENUM Study Group
4. Other important items associated with the ENUM Study Group
5. Election of Chairman and Vice Chairman