Sunday, December 05, 2004
Bidders line up for .net domain names registry
By Rebecca Wanjiku, Highway Africa News Agency,
CAPE TOWN - The role of American corporations in managing domain name registries is destined to provoke heated debates as various companies submit and defend their respective bids for the .net domain name registry.
Already, information communication technology (ICT) industry players have begun assessing the advantages of moving the control of either .com, .net or .org
registries from USA to other parts of the world. The .net registry contract between the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and VeriSign Inc. expires in June 2005.
This, it is argued, will change attitudes towards the whole Internet business and the role of American Corporations in the industry. The .net and .com domain
name registries are operated by VeriSign Incorporated while the .org registry is managed by Public Interest Registry, all based in USA.
Resistance to American control of the internet broke into the open during the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva last year. Many participating governments, particularly those of third world countries, questioned the role of ICANN in internet governance and proposed that it be replaced with an inter governmental body overseen by the United Nations. Granted its history, ICANN is seen as an extension of the US government.
Andreas Baess, Chief Technical Officer of Denic says the relationship between some European countries and ICANN is likely to change if some of the functions are shifted to countries in other parts of the world.
“Right now, there are some European countries who have no contractual relationship with ICANN because of the wording in some of its official documents. I believe this is likely to change,” says Baess.
But Russell Lewis, VeriSign executive vice president says technical and financial abilities of companies to run the services efficiently should take precedence
over any political considerations.
“I think a decision should be taken based on the organisation's ability to provide systems that work, that can withstand attacks from outsiders, and a robust infrastructure that will ensure smooth operations,” says Lewis.
The . net bidding process will open on December 5, 2004 and interested companies must submit their bids by January 18, 2005. The .net registry has 4.8 million domain names, as of November 2004.
Baess argues that Denic, which manages eight million domain names under .de country code, has the technical ability and the right infrastructure to manage the .net registry if given the chance.
Being a non-profit organisation, Baess says Denic will prove that it is determined to provide services according to customers needs. This, he adds, will set Denic apart from the profit motivated companies who sometimes fail to provide satisfactory services, especially when costs of running the service are higher than revenues.
According to John Jeffrey, ICANN general counsel, a third party accounting firm will be appointed to oversee the bidding process and independent operators
will be hired to verify the capacity of the bidding companies.
Jeffrey insists however, that VeriSign will be treated just like any other company bidding for the contract, any assessment of its capacity and reliability will be taken by an independent body.
