Members of the UK internet registry services company Nominet voted in an extraordinary general meeting to expand the scope of the company's business activities and see it in the running to bid for other internet registry services.
The voting meant that the company can now bid to become the UK Tier one registry for ENUM - an internationally approved method for connecting the telephone communications network to the internet, using the domain name system.
Chairman of Nominet Bob Gilbert said he was "delighted with this result".
"Nominet is now equipped to meet the challenges facing the company and to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the market, for the benefit of our membership," he said.
Within the industry there is a belief that web addresses will replace phone numbers within the next ten years. Albert Gouyet, VP of Marketing at network naming and addressing firm Nominum said that individual would have a single web address through ENUM which will route all IP communications (email, fax, phone call or instant message) to one reference point.
"Nominet's announcement is testament to the potential that the communications industry sees in ENUM but the critical consideration as ENUM is deployed will be the strength of the Domain Name System (DNS) infrastructure that underpins ENUM systems"," he said.
