The Australian (not Austrian) ENUM trial was launched in Melbourne today by the Australian communications minister. It was announced at the launch that the Australian regulator has entered into an agreement with AusRegistry International Pty Ltd (www.ausregistry.com.au) to provide and operate the registry service for the trial. AusRegistry International is a subsidiary of the company that is the current registry operator and wholesale provider for all commercial .au domain names and certain non-commercial .au domain names.
 
The go-live data for the trial will be Monday the 6th of June. At this early stage, 2 registrars -- Enetica (www.enetica.com.au) and AARNet (www.aarnet.edu.au) -- have indicated they will participate in the trial.
 
The website for the trial is www.enum.com.au.
 
A media release from the Australian regulator about the trial launch is at http://internet.aca.gov.au/acainter.65636:standard:1251996172:pc=pc_2980 (sorry that our ENUM web pages haven't been updated yet -- hopefully that will be rectified in a few days).
 
A meeting of the Australian ENUM Discussion Group is scheduled for Monday the 16th of May. The meeting will include a briefing on the way in which the trial registry will operate, plus will discuss specific objectives for the trial and the issue of rights of use of existing numbers that might be registered as ENUM domains. We're hoping we'll be able to webcast the meeting, so if any ENUM WG members would be interested in participating and can cope with the time difference (UK, IE, PT = -9 hours; rest of western Europe = -8 hours), let me know and I'll advise you of the arrangements.
 
 
Vince Humphries
Australian Communications Authority
tel. +61 3 99 63 68 44
fax +61 3 99 63 69 79