Naming, Numbering and Addressing robertshaw.info references to telecommunications and Internet naming, numbering and addressing issues.  16 April 2003 Mobile Number Portability: lessons from Hong Kong, China There's a piece Court Hears Fight Over Numbers Used for Cellphones in today's New York Times about the battle to introduce mobile number portability in the United States. There are perhaps some lessons to draw from Asia, particularly Hong Kong, China. In this "mobile-mad" economy, over 90% of the population has a mobile and it probably has the most highly competitive mobile market in the world with 6 providers for slightly less than 7 million people. A few years ago (March 1999), I happened to be in Hong Kong the day the regulator, OFTA, introduced mobile number portability (MNP). You could barely walk around with huge lines to switch mobile providers flowing out of the shops and stalls (today they also hawk broadband from street stalls but that's another story...). A key reason that no mobile provider has yet been able to dominate the market is due to the high subscriber churn facilitated by MNP. Before implementing MNP, OFTA commissioned a feasibility study and a cost benefit analysis. This study concluded "A wide range of consumers will benefit from the MNP in Hong Kong. Mobile subscribers will be able to switch operators and avoid the costs and inconvenience associated with a number change. Competition in the industry will be heightened as a barrier to switching is removed, further benefiting residential and business users.  2:21:01 PM    Google It!      04 April 2003 ITU Overview and ENUM Presentation Here's the presentation (PowerPoint, PDF) I made last week to the GAC at the Rio de Janiero ICANN meeting. It gives an overview of the ITU, changes in the telecom sector, its impact on the ITU, and ITU's activities related to IP-based networks and the Internet. I also made a presentation on ITU's perspectives on ENUM (Powerpoint, PDF) in an open ICANN session.  9:58:36 AM    Google It!     gTLD Auctions? Lawrence Solum and Karl Manheim of Loyola Law School have established the site gtld-auctions.net, which is intended to be a "Clearinghouse of Information and News on Proposals to Establish gTLD Auctions".  9:45:20 AM    Google It!     DNS Root server operators presentation The DNS root server operators have published the presentation (PDF) they recently made to the GAC at the Rio de Janiero ICANN meeting. The presentation (along with the recent CRADA report on root server architecture changes) emphasizes that since November 2002, zone transfers to the set of 13 root servers are not done from a.root-servers.net but rather a hidden master server. As they put it: The "A" server is not special.  9:18:11 AM    Google It!      14 February 2003 Sapphire/Slammer Worm: Impact on Internet Root Server Performance Sapphire/Slammer Worm: Impact on Internet Performance by James Aldridge, Daniel Karrenberg, Henk Uijterwaal and René Wilhelm, New Projects Group / RIPE NCC, including a report on Internet root server performance. The report shows two root servers (b.root-servers.net at USC Information Sciences Institute in California and g.root-servers.net at the U.S. DOD Network Information Center in Virginia) were significantly affected.  11:53:09 AM    Google It!      11 February 2003 More Mirrors of F Root Server Internet Software Consortium Press Release: "TELEHOUSE America ...and Internet Software Consortium ...will jointly establish mirrors of the F-root DNS name root server at two TELEHOUSE America locations.... in its New York International Internet Exchange (NYIIX) and Los Angeles International Internet Exchange (LAIIX)." [via icann.Blog]  10:47:06 AM    Google It!      28 January 2003 Impact of Worm on Root Name Service Argues for Anycasting Daniel Karrenberg on the inpact of the SQL worm on DNS root name service: "A further tentative conclusion is that this data (again) supports the case for distributing root service across the Internet using IP anycasting." For more explanation of anycasting, see here More anycasting of the F root server, Anycasting the root name servers and Distributing the K-Root Service by Anycast Routing [via icann.blog.us].  2:49:55 PM    Google It!      21 January 2003 More anycasting of the F root server The Internet Software Consortium has announced they've come to agreement with the Spain Internet Exchange (EspaNix) to anycast the F root server in Madrid.  For more info on anycasting on this site, see Anycasting the root name servers and Distributing the K-Root Service by Anycast Routing. This follows on from their announcement in November 2002 to create F server mirrors in the Asia-Pacific region. Update: APNIC today (January 23, 2003) made a Call for Expressions of Interest for the support of APNIC Points Of Presence in the Asia Pacific region, including potentialhosting of instances of the F root server. APNIC has also provided a root server trial FAQ.  12:52:39 PM    Google It!      19 December 2002 ITU to hold Workshop on Member States' experiences with ccTLDs ITU Media Advisory: ITU to hold Workshop on Member States' experiences with ccTLDs. More information and contributions to the meeting can be found here.  1:03:35 PM    Google It!

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