ICANN Announcements

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Press Release: ICANN to Announce First Five Competitive Domain Name Registrars

19 April 1999

What:

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN-www.icann.org) will announce the five companies that have been selected to participate in the initial testbed phase of the new competitive Shared Registry System for the .com, .net, and .org domains.  These five participants will be the first to implement the new system for competition in the market for .com, .net, and .org domain name registration services.  Currently, registration services in the .com, .net, and .org domains are provided by Network Solutions, Inc. under a contract with the United States government.

In addition, ICANN will announce the names of other companies that have met the criteria to serve as domain-name registrars in the post-testbed phase of full competition.

Who:

-Esther Dyson, ICANN Interim Chairman
-Mike Roberts, ICANN Interim President and Chief Executive Officer.
-Representatives of the five new registrars (names to be announced at the press conference).

Where:

National Press Club
Holeman Lounge
529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor
Washington, D.C.


Cybercast at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/icann/press/

When:

Wednesday, April 21
10:00-10:45am EDT

Background:

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a new, non-profit, international corporation formed to oversee a select number of the Internet's core technical management functions. Between now and September 2000, ICANN is slated to gradually take over responsibility for coordinating domain name system management, IP address space allocation, protocol parameter assignment coordination, and root server system management.

Contact:

Pamela Brewster
Alexander Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide
(415) 923-1660, ext. 167
pbrewster@alexanderogilvy.com