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Press Communiqué: ICANN Accredits Twelve New Domain Name Registrars

25 January 2000

(January 25, 2000) The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced today that twelve additional applicant companies have met the criteria to be accredited as domain name registrars in the .com, .net, and .org domains.

As accredited registrars, these companies will compete in the market for domain name registration services by participating in the Shared Registry System (SRS), which allows multiple ICANN-accredited registrars to register domain names ending in .com, .net, and .org.

The companies named today join the 98 companies that were previously announced by ICANN, starting in April, 1999. Until the initial introduction of competitive registration services in June, registration services in the .com, .net, and .org domains were provided solely by Network Solutions, Inc., under a 1992 Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Government.

The 12 companies named today are:

1. 1stDomain.Net, a division of G+D International LLC (United States)
<http://www.firstdomain.net>

2. ABC Telemedia AG (Germany)
<http://www.tmag.de>

3. Capitol Networks Pty Ltd. (Australia)
<http://www.TotalNIC.net>

4. Catalog.com Inc. (United States)
<http://www.catalog.com>

5. CSL Computer Service Langenbach GmbH (Germany)
<http://www.joker.com>

6. Deutsche Telekom AG (Germany)
<http://www.telekom.de>
<http://www.telekom.de/english/index.htm>

7. IBI Company Ltd. (Republic of Korea)
<http://www.topregistrar.com>

8. iHoldings.com Inc. d/b/a DotRegistrar.com (United States)
<http://www.iHoldings.com>

9. NameEngine Inc. (United States)
<http://www.nameengine.com>

10. NamesDirect.com (United States)
<http://www.NamesDirect.com>

11. NETPLEX LLC (United States)
<http://www.ntplx.net>

12. Shaver Communications Inc. (United States)
<http://www.web2010.com>

Further information about these companies will be made available via the ICANN website's registrar pages.

ABOUT REGISTRAR ACCREDITATION

The Shared Registration System ("SRS") is a domain name registration system for competitive registrars in the .com, .net, and .org top-level domains. The SRS was created in the spring of 1999 through the initiative of the United States Department of Commerce under an amendment to its cooperative agreement with Network Solutions, Inc. Under this domain name registration system, competing ICANN-accredited registrars register domain names utilizing one shared, central registry operated and maintained by NSI. Although there is no limit on the number of registrars that may register names using the SRS, stability of the Internet and continuity for consumers is protected by the requirement that every business desiring to become a registrar in the .com, .net, and .org top-level domains must become accredited for this purpose by ICANN.

Under an October 6, 1998 amendment to the Cooperative Agreement between Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI) and the U.S. Government, the process of opening the Internet domain name system's largest and most widely used domains to competition was launched with a testbed phase that began on April 26, 1999. Five companies were initially accredited to use the SRS in a test operation designed to ensure that the introduction of competition occurs in a smooth, coordinated manner. By qualifying to be accredited as registrars in the .com, .net, and .org top-level domains, the twelve registrars named today join the five original testbed registrars, as well as the 93 other companies that have already qualified for ICANN accreditation.

On November 4, 1999, the ICANN Board approved a new five-year Registrar Accreditation Agreement, which is now in effect for all accredited registrars. For further details, see ICANN's registrar accreditation pages.

The 98 applicant companies previously announced as meeting ICANN's accreditation criteria are: 7WAYS (France); 9 Net Avenue, Inc. (United States); A+Net (United States); A Technology Company (Canada); Active ISP (Norway); Advanced Systems Consulting, Inc. (United States); Affinity Hosting, LLC (United States); Alabanza, Inc. (United States); All West Communications (United States); Alldomains.com (United States); America Online, Inc. (United States); American Domain Name Registry (United States); Animus Communications, Inc. (United States); AT&T (United States); CADVision d/b/a GetDomain.com (Canada); CASDNS, Inc. (United States); Columbia Analytical Services, Inc. (United States); CommuniTech.Net, Inc. (United States); Computer Data Networks (Kuwait); Concentric Network Corp. (United States); Council of Internet Registrars (CORE) (Global); Cydian Technologies (USA); DADA Sarl (Italy); Domain Bank, Inc. (United States); Domain Direct (Canada); Domain Registration Services (United States); DomainRegistry.com (United States); DomainZoo, Inc. (USA); Eastern Communications Co., Ltd. (China); Easyspace Ltd. (United Kingdom); EnetRegistry.com Corporation (United States); eNom, Inc. (United States); EPAG Enter-Price Multimedia AG (Germany); ExtremeNames.com (United States); France Telecom / Oléane (France); FreeYellow.Com (United States); GANDI (France); Go Daddy Software (USA); HANGANG Systems Inc. (Korea); iDirections, Inc. (United States); Info Avenue Internet Services (United States); InfoNetworks (USA & United Kingdom); infoUSA.com, Inc. (United States); InterAccess Company (United States); Interactive Telecom Network, Inc. (United States); Interdomain, S.A. (Spain); Internet Domain Registrars (Canada); Internet Domain Registry (Israel); Internet Fr SA (France); InterNeXt (France); interQ Incorporated (Japan); iTool.com (United States); Marvin Enterprises/Global Knowledge Group (United States); Melbourne IT (Australia); MS Intergate, Inc. (United States); The Name It Corporation (United States); NameSecure.com (United States); Name.Space (United States); NetBenefit (United Kingdom); NetNames (United Kingdom); NetNation (Canada); Network Solutions (United States); Nominalia (Spain); Nobel Networks (United States); NORDNET (France); OnlineNIC, Inc. (China); pair Networks, Inc, d/b/a pairNIC (USA, United Kingdom, and Germany); Parava Networks, Inc. (USA); Port Information System (Sweden); ProBoard Technologies (United States); PSINet, Inc. (United States); PSI-Japan (Japan); PSI-USA (United States); RCN Corporation (United States); REACTO.com Ltd. (United Kingdom); register.com (United States); Research Institute for Computer Science, Inc. (Japan); Schlund + Partner AG (Germany); Secura Company (Germany); Signature Domains, Inc. (United States); SiteName (Israel); Speednames, Inc. (United States, Denmark, Singapore, Sweden); Stargate Communications, Inc. (United States); Talk.Com, Inc. (USA); Techdogs (United States); TelePartner AS (Denmark); The Direct Connection Ltd. (United Kingdom); TierraNet Inc. (United States); Total Web Solutions (United Kingdom); US Domain Registry (United States); Verio (United States); Virtual Internet (United Kingdom); Virtualis Systems, Inc. (United States); Web Express, Inc. (United States); WebTrends Corporation (United States); World-Net (France); Xin Net Corporation (China); YesNIC (Republic of Korea).

For more information and links to these companies, see <http://www.icann.org/registrars/accreditation-qualified-list.html>

ABOUT ICANN

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a non-profit, international corporation formed in September 1998 to oversee a select set of Internet technical management functions currently managed by the U.S. Government, or by its contractors and volunteers. Specifically, ICANN is assuming responsibility for coordinating the management of the domain name system (DNS), the allocation of IP address space, the assignment of protocol parameters, and the management of the root server system.

For more information, please contact Andrew McLaughlin.