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As the registry operator for the .biz and .us TLDs, NeuStar is particularly well-suited to be the operator of the .org TLD.  Further, NeuStar has as its central purpose, the neutral provisioning of mission critical infrastructure systems in support of global public resources.

NeuStar, Inc. is a privately held technology and registry services company formed in 1996 to serve as the North American Numbering Plan Administrator under contract with the Federal Communications Commission. Since its founding, and operating through its various lines of business and its Registry Services Division, the company has leveraged its reputation as a trusted neutral third-party provider of critical infrastructure services to develop lines of business serving both the telecommunications industry and the Internet industry. Indeed, its intimate knowledge of both industries has allowed it to act as a bridge between these important communications industries. NeuStar serves these industries through its Registry Services and Telephone Numbering Services divisions. The NeuStar Registry Services division is currently comprised of: (i) the .biz top-level domain, operated by NeuLevel, Inc., a joint venture between NeuStar, the majority owner and operator, and Melbourne IT, Ltd.; and (ii) the .us top-level domain, operated exclusively by NeuStar. For purposes of this proposal, NeuStar and NeuStar Registry Services may collectively be referred to as “NeuStar” . 

Since its inception, NeuStar has been selected time and again by the industry in open competitive procurements to provide first-of-a-kind mission critical services. For example, NeuStar designed, built and manages the Number Portability Administration Center (NPAC), one of the largest databases in the world, and was selected to administer and enhance the .us Internet domain by the United States Department of Commerce. Integrity, stability, and neutrality are the underpinnings of NeuStar’s services. NeuStar’s numbering services enables the routing of virtually every call dialed within the United States, and 18 other countries in North America. Likewise, NeuStar’s .biz and .us registries provide stable, high-availability DNS services to the global Internet community.

The following summarizes the many essential services provided by NeuStar in its Registry and Numbering lines of business.  Detailed descriptions can be found in Proposal Section C15.

Registry services

"Next-generation" registry for .biz gTLD—A division of NeuStar Registry Services, NeuLevel, Inc., operates the new top-level domain registry for .biz. It was selected among 40 respondents as the result of the worldwide, competitive procurement for new generic TLDs. .biz is the only top-level Internet domain created exclusively for business activity.

Official administrator of the .us ccTLD—NeuStar was selected in a competitive procurement by the United States Department of Commerce to administer the .us ccTLD.  In this capacity NeuStar has leveraged its next-generation registry infrastructure to transition the .us domain from the incumbent operator and improve and enhance the domain through direct second-level registrations and improvement of the locality space operations.  In April 2002, NeuStar conducted the highly successful, first ever real-time “landrush” process during which NeuStar’s SRS system handled approximately five million transactions in its first twenty-four hours of operation.  NeuStar also administers .us policy through its work with the Department of Commerce and the usTLD Policy Council. 

Convergence directories—NeuStar is leading the development and introduction of a suite of Global Directory Services that include SIP and IM, as well as national and international ENUM administration, next generation signaling standards that will bring intelligent network capabilities to IP based networks.  Collectively, NeuStar's Global Directory Services will facilitate the convergence and interoperability of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and IP-based networks.

Numbering services

North American numbering plan administration (NANPA)—NeuStar operates the telephone numbering registry for the North American Numbering Plan as a public resource, serving customers throughout the United States, Bermuda, and the Caribbean Islands. It is the centralized source for assigning all Number Plan Area (NPA) codes and central office codes, and coordinating NPA code relief as the demand for numbers increases.  NeuStar transitioned this responsibility from the original Regional Bell Operating Companies and the former Bellcore in a highly responsible manner, transparent to the public.

Number portability administration center (NPAC)—NeuStar operates the routing registry for North America that allows customers to keep their existing phone numbers when changing local service providers. NeuStar's development and operation of the NPAC in Chicago, Illinois, provides a master registry of routing information that interfaces with local carriers.  Virtually all calls in North America query a copy of NeuStar's database to be properly routed.  Through this center, NeuStar coordinates the porting of local telephone numbers between carriers in North America, serving more than 250 service providers daily and porting more than one million numbers each month.

Number pooling administration—As proven by NeuStar, number pooling has the potential to extend the North American Numbering Plan's (NANP) life well into this century. NeuStar has been the Pooling Administrator for over two years for U.S. pooling trials in several states and number planning areas, and in June 2001, NeuStar was selected as the National Number Pooling Administer by the FCC.  Number pooling, also known as thousands-block pooling, allows for the disbursement of numbers to service providers in 1,000 number parcels. NeuStar worked with the telecommunications industry to develop the initial Pooling Administration guidelines and to seamlessly transition number pooling operations in multiple states. We are in the process of transitioning pooling from the state level to the national level and have successfully introduced National Pooling in 35 states to date. 

European Telephony Numbering Space (ETNS)—In March 2001 the European Radiocommunications Office (ERO)—a permanent office of the European Committee on Telecommunications Regulatory Affairs of CEPT (European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations) and a center of expertise in the fields of licensing, numbering, and radiocommunications—selected NeuStar in a competitive bidding process to manage the establishment of the European Telephony Numbering Space (ETNS) to establish a single country code for all of Europe and assist in enhancing the availability of pan-European telecommunications services.

These services demonstrate NeuStar’s experience in successfully building databases and establishing clearinghouse services that benefit the Internet and communications industries and the wide recognition for this.  Yet, our expertise is not limited to systems development, and we are not merely a systems developer. We solely operate and support the systems we develop. We manage a complete start-to-finish solution, from concept to service offering. Working closely with our clients we design, develop, and create systems; this enables us to understand first-hand any issues that arise and to address them quickly and intelligently. It also enables us to recognize and mitigate problems we encounter by readily adapting appropriate methods and procedures. We will assume direct accountability for the administration of the .org TLD from beginning to end, because we provide a comprehensive services, not just systems or software.

NeuStar's significant technical and operational experience would not be as successful without its corporate mission to lead and serve the industry as a neutral third party. Neutrality for us is not a platitude; it is our identity, embodying the impeccable, high-quality, even-handed service essential to the central role we play in the industry. We are committed to impartiality and fairness, and our staff has a history of recognizing the importance of understanding and working collaboratively and effectively with various industry participants and respecting their differing perspectives within the confines of regulatory environments. Our adherence to the tenets of neutrality does not come from a desire to please nor is it considered an obligation. Rather, it is what we were established to do. Neutrality is a belief we embrace and have embodied in the Codes of Conduct that govern our Internet registry and numbering services.  We are committed to managing extremely sensitive proprietary data in an atmosphere of high security and confidentiality and our goal is the equitable treatment of all participating industry players.

NeuStar, Inc is a for-profit corporation organized under laws of the State of Delaware, USA.

11-240-3295

270

$74M USD

Directors

Jeffrey Ganek

Dr. Henry Kressel

Joseph P. Landy

Henry Geller

Dr. Kenneth Pickar

Officers

Jeffrey Ganek, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Mike Lach, Chief Operating Officer

Robert Dowski, Chief Financial Officer

Mark D. Foster, Chief Technology Officer

Edward G. Freitag, General Counsel

Robert Poulin, Senior Vice President, Registry Services

Joseph F. Franlin, Senior Vice President, Operations

Gerald Kovach, Senior Vice President, External Relations

Steven Cory, Vice President, Technical Operations

Jerome Haynesworth, Vice President, Human Resource and Administration

David Heath, Vice President, Operations Registry Services

Martin Lowen, Vice President, Law and Business Development

Tom McGarry, Vice President, Strategic Technical Initiatives

Greg Roberts, Vice President, Numbering  Business Development

Tim Switzer, Vice President, Finance and Customer Service

Richard Tindal, Vice President, Sales, Registry Services

Matt Wald, Vice President,, IP Services

Christine Walker, Vice President, Numbering Operations

Relevant managers

James A. Casey, Director, Law & Business Development

Lester M. Chasen, Technical Manager, Systems Engineering

Eric Eden, Director, Operations

Ronald H. Ferraro, Senior Manager, Systems Engineering

Paul Greene, Director, Information Security

Kenneth Hansen, Director, New TLD Administration

Suzette McLeod, Senior Program Manager

Jeffrey J. Neuman, Director, Law & Policy

William Sylvster, Chief Architect, Advanced Technology Development

Ahita Vessali, Director, Billing & Collections

Richard Wilhelm, Senior Director, Systems Engineering

Persons or entities owning five percent or more of the Applicant on a
fully-diluted basis

Warburg, Pincus & Co.

DB Capital Investors, L.P.

Persons or entities owning five percent or more of the Applicant (if not on a fully-diluted basis)

ABS Capital Partners

Ken Hansen
+1 571.434.5745 (telephone)
+1 571.434.5758 (fax)
ken.hansen@neustar.biz

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