Over the past decade, our daily tasks have required the use of an increasing number of services: telephone, fax, Internet sites, e-mail, mobile phones, SMS messages, chats, and location-based services. The demand for a single-valued identity number for all network and phone services, together with the demand for a merger between telephony and Internet networks into a single platform, has led to the creation of a new communications protocol Electronic Numbering Mapping (ENUM). ENUM is aimed at making all these services accessible through your telephone number.
Yuval Peleg, cofounder and CEO of Num4Net, which has developed a commercial platform for service management in communications companies, explains that his product is in essence one's own telephone number. Last week, the company signed an agreement with China United Telecommunications Corp. (China Unicom), one of the world’s largest cellular operators. Num4Net expects the agreement to generate $15 million in revenue over the next three years. “The product actually uses telephone numbers for access to all Internet and telephony content and services,” Peleg says. “There are three ways to present the product: one for the telecommunications companies to which we sell, one for service subscribers, and one for users, i.e. Internet users.”
”Globes”: What does the end-user really experience?
Peleg: ”You can type a telephone number in the URL line, and reach an Internet site. You can type a phone number in an e-mail, and get an answer by phone. You can type a phone number in portals, and get a greeting card with all the content and services for which you subscribed.
”Assume you’re a subscriber. You say, ‘I belong to “Globes”, and this is my e-mail address, my website address, my fax number, and my beeper number.’ Tomorrow, people can type your phone number in the browser, and reach the “Globes” Internet site. They can type your phone number in an e-mail, and you get an e-mail. They can type your phone number in Walla!, and get a complete list of all the services you provide: where you work, your name, your job, and all your particulars.”
What’s so special about that?
”What’s so special about it? First of all, up until now, there’s been no service that gives you a telephone number and enables you to connect it with all Internet content and services.”
Yes, but what do I need it for?
”I’ll tell you. Are you a user or a subscriber? Say I want to send you an e-mail. I call you and ask you for your e-mail address, you start to recite it, followed by your fax number… You start reciting a lot of numbers, when the person who called you already knows your phone number. Instead of doing all that, you tell him, ‘Type my phone number in Walla!, for example, and you’ll get all my particulars through the Walla! search engine.”
That’s cute, but what’s so great about it?
There’s plenty that’s great about it, depending on your point of view. Let’s start with the subscribers, who fall into three categories. The first is large businesses, which invest millions of dollars in turning their phone numbers, such as the 1-800 and 1-700 numbers, into brand names. For NIS 50, say, anyone calling their phone number can get all the other details about the company.
Medium-sized businesses have services, content, and contact information on their website, but they have no means for mass promotion of this content and these services. For X shekels a month, anyone calling their phone number will already know all their particulars.”
What about small businesses?
”Let’s take Yossi the plumber, who has opened a store in Tel Aviv, where he sells something. He’s not an Internet user, but he does have a business, and the business has a name, address, business category, map, and a cellular phone number. If he subscribes to the service, and you look for him by telephone, you automatically get a map showing how to reach his store, you can find out the store hours, you can send him a fax, call him on his cell phone, and so on.”
What about Internet users?
”If I’m in the middle of talking to someone, why shouldn’t I be able to type in his or her phone number and get all their particulars, get an update, access their company site, and read about it? It’s simple and convenient. It doesn’t replace the current methods. You can still type in the URL address of the website or the e-mail address. In cellular portals, where you choose links instead of typing addresses, it’s even more obvious. You’re on the way to a meeting, the subscribers don’t answer, and you need directions to the meeting place. You simply enter the cellular portal, type in the phone number of the persons you’re meeting, and get all their particulars. Afterwards, by using the links, you get all the services you need: how to get there, how to drive there. Do you want to phone them? Use the link for the phone number, and the system calls for you. Do you want to send them an e-mail? The system will open the e-mail program on the cell phone, and you can send an e-mail. You just have to press a button.”
Peleg says the company already has a working system, which supports Chinese, and includes links to two local services. One is a service that links addresses to street maps, and the other is an SMS service. Num4Net is now working on a link to VoIP service.
What advantages does your system have for communications operators?
”Two main problems in both the Internet and telephony surfaced in early 2001. The first is the need for a single IP identifier for all content and services. I want access to everything through a single value. I don’t want a website address and an e-mail address and a fax number. There’s a need for one supreme number that will connect you with all the content and services.
”Another problem is that there are now two giant networks: telephone and Internet, and no bridge between them. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) sat down with the International Telecommunications Union, and agreed on a new protocol, called Electronic Numbering Mapping (ENUM). This protocol stipulates the method of converting phone numbers into services and content for both the phone network and the Internet. Num4Net is actually the first company in the world with a finished comprehensive commercial solution that supports both ENUM and IP.”
What is your business model?
”We’re selling the platform to telecommunications companies. We have two models. One is software licensing; we sell the system, and get money for the license to use it. The second is profit sharing. In the Chinese contract, we get half of the service revenue. The users will be billed for about $1 a month.”
China is not the only place where the system is installed. Peleg says that Bezeq (TASE:BZEQ), a Num4Net shareholder, has tested the system, and is still testing it. “We signed an agreement with British Telecom (NYSE: BTY; LSE: BT.A). They tested the system. We’ll launch a trial period within a month. We sat with both the engineers and the marketing people from Deutsche Telekom (NYSE: DT; XETRA: DTEG), which tested the system, but we haven’t installed it yet. We also have a commitment from a Polish communications company. They tested the product, and we’re starting a trial in the next six months.”
It turns out that Bezeq’s trial was 11 months ago. “They installed the system, and tested many aspects of its functioning.”
Are they going to buy the system?
”I prefer not to comment on that. For obvious reasons, I prefer not to spell out the processes taking place with them.”
Do they have shares in the company? What is their stake?
”5%.”
How much did they pay for it?
”They invested resources in testing the system eight months ago.”
Their payment was the trial?
”Yes.”
Was that worthwhile?
”I’m confident it was.”
Why?
”First of all, it’s important for a young company to hear its customers’ opinion of its system. That’s critical. The input we got from them improved our product tremendously. Furthermore, when you have to present yourself, and Bezeq is a partner and a party at interest in your company, you carry a little more weight. There’s no doubt it was worth it, regardless of whether they eventually use the system or not.”
In addition to Bezeq, company shareholders include Financitech, Hoak Capital, and private investors.
Before founding Num4Net in September 2000, Peleg worked for 12 years at Computer Associates (NYSE: CA), first as a software engineer, then in the development division in Britain, and then in management in the US. His partners in founding Num4Net were Dr. Haim Brender and Noam Braverman.
Peleg has this to say the founding of his new company: “I got an idea in my head, and things started to roll. The minute I saw it suited me, I left Computer Associates.
There already are services that offer e-mail addresses with a telephone number. “Yes, there are phone numbers that you can extend into addresses. It’s only for e-mail, though; there’s no comprehensive solution for all existing services,” Peleg quips.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on June 12, 2003