Possible union for phone and IP addresses

Proposals to co-ordinate IP addresses with telephone numbers are being studied by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) argues that as the Internet and telecommunications industries become increasingly merged, it will become necessary to harmonise domain names, IP addresses and telephone numbers. ETSI has also requested a key role in regulating the industry.

However, the Internet Architecture Board has told ICANN that it believes the proposals to be ill-conceived and that ETSI is simply making a power-play.