ENUM is a way to cut down on costs bound to the regular telephone communication. If you have a IP phone available, you can use ENUM to call numbers in any network using the Internet during the whole route to the destination – there is no need to keep on paying expensive fees to telephone operators.

Technology ENUM enables to public a way, how to call the number via Internet. The rest is handled by the telecommunication technology supporting ENUM, utilizing the following principle: When dialing a number, ENUM first finds out whether the given phone can be reached via the Internet. If this is true, the call is connected in this way and is free of any charges. If the Internet connection is not possible, the call is made by standard means using public telephone network (PSTN) lines.

However, there is more to ENUM than this. A phone number stored in the ENUM database may also be used as an identifier for other services, such as e-mail, web, vcards, SMS, MMS etc. Different priorities can be assigned to records stored in ENUM, determining the order of services to be used to establish connection with a given number.

ENUM are Yellow pages, where you can publish the information, how to reach your phone number over the Internet for free, or how to reach it via other communication services that voice call only.

Learn more about:

- ENUM benefits

- Difference between common VoIP telephony and VoIP telephony with ENUM

- How ENUM works from technical viewpoint

- Requirements needed to start using ENUM