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ICANN Seeks Expressions of Interest from Registrars to Receive Names from Two De-Accredited Registrars

6 June 2008

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Request For Information: ICANN Seeks Expressions of Interest from Registrars to Receive Bulk Transfer of Names from De-Accredited Registrars Best Registration Services, Inc. dba Bestregistrar.com and DotForce Corp. dba DotForce.com

As the result of a de-accreditation of two gTLD registrars: Best Registration Services, Inc. dba Bestregistrar.com (IANA ID 473) and DotForce Corp. dba DotForce.com (IANA ID 461), ICANN is seeking Statements of Interest from ICANN-accredited registrars that are interested in assuming sponsorship of the gTLD names that had been managed by the de-accredited registrars.

  • Best Registration Services, Inc. managed approximately 5,400 gTLD registrations, including registrations in the biz, com, info, net, and org registries, and is based in the United States. ICANN has secured all available Whois data for the current registrations. There are approximately 3 second-level internationalized domain names under this registrar’s sponsorship in the com and net zones.

  • DotForce Corp. managed approximately 400 gTLD registrations, including registrations in the biz, com, info, net, and org registries, and is based in the Republic of Korea. ICANN has secured all available Whois data for the current registrations. There are approximately 12 second-level internationalized domain names under this registrar’s sponsorship in the com and net zones.

Request for Statements of Interest

ICANN-accredited registrars who wish to be considered as a potential recipient of a bulk transfer of either or both of the de-accredited registrars’ names should be in good standing with regard to all ICANN-obligations and submit a written statement of interest by no later than 23:00 UTC on Friday, 13 June 2008, with a description of qualification, which includes at least:

  1. Registrar experience, including number of registrations and customers managed;
  2. Availability of sufficient customer service staffing to timely respond to customer service requests during and shortly after the bulk transfer;
  3. Ability to communicate with customers in languages other than English;
  4. A list of the TLDs in which accredited and operational;
  5. Experience with and knowledge of bulk-transfer procedures;
  6. Documentation of procedures to resolve potential disputes of domain name control or registration rights;
  7. Experience as a customer-facing / "retail" registrar business;
  8. Experience with second-level IDNs in the com & net zones;
  9. Ability to provide ICANN with regular status reports.

Expressions of interest should indicate, approximately, the amount of time needed by the applicant-registrar to prepare to receive the bulk transfer.

This request for information/expressions of interest is made pursuant to the Draft/Interim Terminated Registrar Transition Procedure posted at http://www.icann.org/en/announcement-2-06jun08-en.htm. ICANN reserves the right to entertain any or none of the statements of interest submitted in response to this request and to select or approve a bulk-transfer recipient outside this process. To the extent confidential treatment of any information in the submission is required, such information should be designated accordingly. Questions and submissions should be submitted by email to mike.zupke@icann.org.