(October 26, 1999) The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced today that eleven 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 eleven companies named today join the 76 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 11 companies named today are:
1. Easyspace Ltd. (United Kingdom)
<http://www.easyspace.com>2. ExtremeNames.com (United States)
<http://www.worldsubmit.net>3. FreeYellow.Com (United States)
<http://www.freeyellow.com>4. HANGANG (Korea)
<http://www.hangang.co.kr>5. infoUSA.com, Inc. (United States)
<http://www.infousa.com>6. OnlineNIC, Inc. (China)
<http://www.china-channel.com>7. REACTO.com Ltd. (United Kingdom)
<http://www.reacto.com>8. Schlund + Partner AG (Germany)
<http://www.schlund.de>9. Speednames, Inc. (United States, Denmark, Singapore, Sweden)
<http://www.speednames.com>10. Virtualis Systems, Inc. (United States)
<http://www.virtualis.com>11. Web Express, Inc. (United States)
<http://www.webex.net>
Further information about these companies will be made available on the ICANN website's registrar pages.
ABOUT REGISTRAR ACCREDITATION
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 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.
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 76 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.htm>.
On September 28, 1999, ICANN posted for public comment a set of proposed agreements among ICANN, Network Solutions, Inc., and the U.S. Department of Commerce, including a proposed new Registry-Registrar Agreement and Registrar Accreditation Agreement. Taking in account the comments and views of the Internet community, the ICANN Board will consider the proposed agreements at its next meeting, on November 4, 1999, in Los Angeles. To review the proposed agreements, see <http://www.icann.org/agreements.htm>. For details on ICANN's Los Angeles meetings, see <http://www.icann.org/losangeles99/>.
The 76 applicant companies previously announced as meeting ICANN's accreditation criteria are: 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); 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); DADA Sarl (Italy); Domain Bank, Inc. (United States); Domain Direct (Canada); Domain Registration Services (United States); DomainRegistry.com (United States); Eastern Communications Co., Ltd. (China); EnetRegistry.com Corporation (United States); eNom, Inc. (United States); EPAG Enter-Price Multimedia AG (Germany); France Telecom / Oléane (France); GANDI (France); iDirections, Inc. (United States); Info Avenue Internet Services (United States); InfoNetworks (USA & United Kingdom); 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); Nominalia (Spain); Nobel Networks (United States); NORDNET (France); Port Information System (Sweden); ProBoard Technologies (United States); PSINet, Inc. (United States); PSI-Japan (Japan); PSI-USA (United States); RCN Corporation (United States); register.com (United States); Research Institute for Computer Science, Inc. (Japan); Secura Company (Germany); Signature Domains, Inc. (United States); SiteName (Israel); Stargate Communications, Inc. (United States); 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); WebTrends Corporation (United States); World-Net (France).
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.