VeriSign, Inc., and Telcordia Technologies are forming a partnership to develop one telephone number to communicate with multiple devices such as e-mail, fax machines, cell phones and pagers. Under the terms of the agreement, Telcordia and the VeriSign Global Registry Services division will jointly develop an ENUM directory and an open system trial based on the proposed ENUM standard.

The trial system will be housed on the VeriSign Domain Name System (DNS) infrastructure that handles more than one billion domain name queries per day.

The proposed ENUM standard, currently being considered by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), provides a framework for a global numbering system to map telephone numbers to other service addresses over the Internet. As the full scope and potential of ENUM functionality and consumer use will ultimately be defined through the development of independent applications, the companies are inviting service providers, applications developers, and vendors to participate in the trial which is scheduled to begin in late this year.

The trial, which will utilize a gateway through the ENUM resource site will allow users to develop and exercise their applications for functionality and compatibility with the ENUM standard.

"The trial will bring us significantly closer to implementing a real-world ENUM model for consumers and businesses alike," said Richard Orriss, vice president and general manager of the Service Business and Management Group at Telcordia. "With ENUM fully realized, the business card of the future could list a single universal address, to which people could direct a phone call, an e-mail, a fax, or other communications. The result -- more efficient, simplified communication anywhere, around the globe."

Telcordia Technologies, Inc., an SAIC company, is one of the world's largest providers of operations support systems, network software and consulting and engineering services to the telecommunications industry. Telcordia provides service management systems globally to administer and update numbers for toll-free and local number portability services.

Every toll-free call in the U.S. depends on Telcordia software, which has processed billions of toll-free calls without service interruption. This service management platform will be used to provide similar capabilities for the trial system. The Morristown, N.J.-based Telcordia employs more than 6,500 professionals and has revenues of more than $1.5 billion.

"The domain name system provides the ideal housing for the ENUM trial," said Bruce Chovnick, general manager of the Herndon, Va.-based VeriSign Global Registry Services. "We recognize the potential for the convergence of telephony and Internet communications and are pleased to be working with Telcordia toward the practical integration of the two technologies."

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VeriSign Global Registry Services (a division of Network Solutions, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of VeriSign, Inc.) is the largest provider of Internet locator services. The Registry maintains a directory of more than 19 million Web addresses and is responsible for the infrastructure that propagates this information throughout the Internet and responds to over 1.5 billion DNS look-ups daily.

As the exclusive provider of registry services to .com, .net, and .org, VeriSign Global Registry currently supports 66 active ICANN accredited registrars operating in 17 countries around the globe.