Interim procedures for Geographic Country Codes
ENUM administration ad interim
These procedures have been approved on 8 November 2007 by ITU-T Study Group 2 and were updated on
28 February 2019 and 17 November 2023 by ITU-T Study Group 2
1 Background
There is considerable interest in implementing ENUM in some Member States so that it would be appropriate to provide interim procedures to enable such activities to take place.
In response to this interest, the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) issued instructions to RIPE-NCC regarding how to proceed with any requests received by RIPE-NCC. Those instructions can be found at
http://www.ripe.net/enum/instructions.html. Additional information on ENUM can be found at
http://www.ripe.net/enum/. It should be noted that the cited instructions are fully consistent with the statement:
Member States will have the right to choose whether to participate in the common designated ENUM domain, or not to participate in it, at their discretion.
Consistency with the above statement is achieved by RIPE-NCC’s referring any requests for delegations of domain names corresponding to E.164 country codes to the Telecommunications Standardization Bureau (TSB) for approval.
It is important that the TSB process any such requests in a transparent and consistent way, and therefore these procedures have been created. In the long-term, it is envisaged that the TSB processes and procedures will be specified in a future Recommendation(s).
2 Scope
The purpose of this document is to set out the interim procedures that will be used by the TSB, should the TSB receive a request from RIPE-NCC before final approval of the future Recommendation(s). The procedures to be described in the finally approved version of the future Recommendation(s) will supersede these interim procedures. These procedures shall not prejudice the future Recommendation(s).
The following agreements were made relative to the interim procedures:
- The interim procedures will remain in effect until the approval of a future Draft Recommendation(s), currently Draft Recommendation E.A-ENUM, which will then supersede these interim procedures.
- The interim procedures can be modified at any time and will be reviewed no later than the next scheduled meeting of SG2 in 2005.
These interim procedures cover only assigned geographic country codes. Unless further guidance is received to the contrary from Study Group 2, the TSB will send an objection to RIPE NCC with respect to any requests for delegations of any other types of country codes.
3 Interim Procedures
These interim procedures are consistent with the agreed SG2 statement that Member States will have the right to choose whether to participate in the common designated ENUM domain, or not to participate in it, at their discretion, and with the procedures currently under development as specified in the future Recommendation(s).
3.1 Formal Validity of CC
When the TSB receives a request from RIPE NCC, it will first verify that the country code (CC) mentioned in the request meets the formal conditions for delegation for ENUM, namely:
- That the code is a currently-assigned country code, and
- For country codes shared by two or more Member States within an integrated numbering plan or in another framework, all Member States must endorse the request.
In the alternative, when a request representing the entire code is received and endorsed by two or more Member States, but not all of the Member States, within an integrated numbering plan, this request shall also be accepted provided that no Member State within the integrated numbering plan objects within 60 days and that there is a formal agreement between the TSB and the Tier 1 Registry that only those portions of the code for which the requesting Member States are responsible will be delegated.
Furthermore, when only a single Member State within an integrated numbering plan or in another framework requests that its numbering resources be delegated, this request may also be accepted if the request corresponds to that portion of the code for which the Member State has administrative responsibilities and the country code is delegated to the Tier 0 Registry and there is a formal agreement between the Tier 0 Registry and the TSB to the effect that only the numbering resources for that specific country will be delegated under a separate arrangement between the specific country and the Tier 0 Registry.
If these conditions are not met, the TSB will notify RIPE NCC that it objects to the delegation. As a consequence, the delegation will not take place.
3.2 National Position Known
If the conditions of 3.1 are met, and if the concerned Member State has notified the TSB of its position regarding delegation for ENUM of its CC, then the TSB will immediately make that position known to RIPE NCC.
That is, TSB will inform RIPE NCC that the concerned Member State either approves or objects to the delegation. If the Administration objects, the delegation will not take place.
Since the request from RIPE NCC will designate a specific ENUM Tier 1 Registry, the TSB will only be able to approve the request if the Member State has notified the TSB that it approves that particular Tier 1 entity.
3.3 National Position Not Known
If the conditions of 3.1 are met, but the concerned Member State has not previously notified the TSB of its position regarding delegation for ENUM of its CC, then the TSB will proceed as follows:
Within 60 days, notify RIPE NCC that it objects to the delegation, because it has not received approval from the concerned Member State.
- Within 60 days, notify the concerned Member State of the request and of the TSB objection sent to RIPE NCC, and request the Member State to advise the TSB if the objection should be rescinded and an approval sent to RIPE NCC.
- If an approval is received from the Member State, notify RIPE NCC of that approval.
That is, the delegation will not take place until the concerned Member State has notified the TSB that it approves the delegation.
3.4 Change in National Position
If a Member State notifies the TSB of a change in its position, the TSB will communicate that change to RIPE NCC, who will implement the change. The changes can be:
- A previously granted approval becomes an objection. In this case, the delegation will be removed and ENUM will no longer be available for the concerned CC.
- A previously stated opposition, or lack of approval, becomes an approval. In this case, the delegation will be granted and ENUM will be available for the concerned CC.
- There is a change in the party to which the CC is delegated, that is, a change in the ENUM Tier 1 Registry. In this case, the TSB will notify RIPE NCC of that change and the change will be implemented.
That is, a Member State may at any time stop, enable, or change ENUM delegations. In case of stop, the Member State can decide to restore the previously stopped/revoked delegation at any time. A request for restoring the previously stopped/revoked delegation will be considered as a new request.
3.5 CC ENUM delegation non-operational
If TSB receives a request from RIPE NCC on the following issues, it will notify the concerned Member State within 60 days and request the Member State to advise the TSB of its position regarding delegation of ENUM of its CC.
- The current registrations have deteriorated over time and are no longer functional or operational.
This means that an attempt to resolve a label in one of those non-functioning sub-domains will result in failure, either because the name servers registered are no longer reachable or are not configured to be authoritative for the e164.arpa sub-domain in question.
- Temporary delegation has expired.
If a reply is received from the Member State, TSB will notify RIPE NCC the Member State’s advice.
If no reply is received, the TSB will notify RIPE NCC that the non-operational delegations can be withdrawn, and further notify the Member State that they may further request the insertion of the E.164 Country Code as per these interim procedures.
3.6 Communication Methods
- Communications between the TSB and Member States will be between the Director of the TSB and the official contact nominated by the Administration of the concerned Member State and on file with the ITU. Administrations of Member States are encouraged to notify the TSB regarding who should be the official contact for ENUM matters. Such notification shall be provided by the official contact described below.
In the absence of a specific notification for ENUM matters, the official Administration point of contact listed in the ITU Directory will be used. Communications will take place by physical letter or facsimile, although E-Mail may be used in addition for clarification (but not for formal decisions). - To expedite the process, initial requests should be sent first to the TSB. After approval is received, the requests can be sent to RIPE NCC in conformance with the RIPE NCC Instructions.
- All approvals will be posted on the TSB Web site at
http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/inr/enum/Pages/default.aspx.
- Communications between the TSB and RIPE NCC will take place by E-Mail. The TSB will designate a mail address for this purpose. The TSB will keep an archive of all E-Mails sent and received.
Any approvals sent to RIPE NCC will be confirmed in writing by the Director of the TSB. - When notifying an approval to RIPE NCC, the formal approval letter by the Director of the TSB will contain appropriate language with respect to the Member State’s authority to revoke its approval and transform it into an objection.
