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Press Communique: ICANN Names Seven New Post-Testbed Registrars

11 August 1999

(August 11, 1999) The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced today that seven additional applicant companies have met its registrar accreditation criteria.

As accredited registrars, these seven companies will compete in the market for domain name registration services in the .com, .net, and .org domains. In addition, they will be able to participate the ongoing testbed program for the Shared Registry System, which allows multiple ICANN-accredited registrars to provide domain name registration services in the .com, Net, and .org domains. Under an agreement announced August 6 by the U.S. Department of Commerce and Network Solutions, Inc. (the developer of the Shared Registry System), new registrars that have signed an accreditation agreement with ICANN will be eligible to join the initial five testbed registrars as participants in the testbed operation. The testbed phase is currently scheduled to conclude on September 10, 1999.

The seven companies named today join the 57 companies that have already been accredited by ICANN starting in April, 1999. Until the initial introduction of competition 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 US Government.

The seven companies named today are:

Further information about these companies will be made available on the ICANN website at http://www.icann.org/registrars/accreditation.htm.

ABOUT REGISTRAR ACCREDITATION

Under an October 6, 1998 amendment to the Cooperative Agreement between Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI) and the US Government, the process of opening the Internet Domain Name System's three largest domains to competition was launched with a testbed phase that began on April 26. Five companies were initially accredited to use the NSI Shared Registry System in a test operation designed to ensure that the introduction of competition occurs in a smooth, coordinated manner. The original testbed participants, all of which are now offering registration services in competition with NSI, are: America Online; CORE (Internet Council of Registrars); France Telecom/Oléane; Melbourne IT; and register.com. For more on the testbed registrars, see http://www.icann.org/announcements/icann-pr21apr99.htm.

By qualifying to be accredited as registrars in the .com, Net, and .org top-level domains, the seven registrars named today join the five original testbed registrars, as well as the 52 other companies that have already qualified for ICANN accreditation. Under an agreement announced on August 6, 1999, the Shared Registry System testbed program has been expanded to extend to all accredited registrars that sign the standard testbed registrar agreements with NSI and meet technical certification requirements. For further details, see http://www.icann.org/registrars/accreditation.html.

The 52 other applicant companies previously announced as meeting ICANN's accreditation criteria are: 9NetAvenue; A Technology Company; ABACUS America, Inc./A+Net; Active ISP; Advanced Systems Consulting, Inc.; Affinity Hosting; Alabanza, Inc.; Alldomains.com; All West Communications; American Domain Name Registry; Animus Communications, Inc.; AT&T; CASDNS, Inc.; Computer Data Networks; Domain Bank, Inc.; Domain Direct; Domain Registration Services; DomainRegistry.com; EnetRegistry.com Corporation; eNom, Inc.; EPAG Enter-Price Multimedia AG; InfoAvenue; InfoNetworks; InfoRamp/Tech Dogs; InterAccess Company; Interactive Telecom Network; Interdomain; Internet Domain Registrars; interQ Incorporated; Marvin Enterprises, Inc./Global Knowledge Group; MS Intergate; The Name-It Corporation/Advanced Internet Technologies, Inc.; NameSecure.com; Name.Space Inc.; NetBenefit; NetNames; NetNation Communications; Nominalia; Port Information System AB; PSI-Japan, Inc.; PSINet, Inc.; RCN; Research Institute for Computer Science, Inc.; SiteName; Telepartner AS; TierraNet, Inc.; TotalWeb Solutions; Verio; Virtual Internet; WebTrends; and World-Net.

For more on 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 US 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
mclaughlin@icann.org
+1 (617) 495-4935