The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers said Monday it is seeking public comment on a new proposal for opening up Internet domain-name registration to competition.
The proposal is the first set of guidelines ICANN has made public since it was formed four months ago. The US government last year appointed the organization to oversee accreditation of companies that want to distribute domain names. Since then, the group has been under heavy pressure from the Net community to come up with criterion for undoing the monopoly on domain-name registrations now exercised by one company, Network Solutions.
Although ICANN didn't propose anything that would put Network Solutions out of business, the Virginia company will see lots of competition if the proposal is adopted. Network Solution shares (NSOL) dropped US$23.63, or 12 percent, to $174.13.
The 30-page proposal touches on everything from maintaining a database of domain names to setting rules for new registrars. It isn't light reading, but ICANN's interim president and chief executive, Mike Roberts, expects the document will draw a lot of public scrutiny.
"As with all these efforts, they end up being bigger and more complicated by the time you finish them than when you start them," Roberts said. He'd like to see criticism kept "down to a dull roar," he said, but that likely won't be the case.
The core of ICANN's proposal focuses on splitting the domain-name registration business into two parts. The organization proposes that a central database of domains still be maintained by one company, most likely Network Solutions. The registration of new domains, however, will be open to competition by additional registrars. Currently, Network Solutions has a monopoly on both functions.
A large part of the proposal outlines how to accredit registrars. The group is proposing that registrars be allowed to operate for a year at a time, provide records of sites they register, and pay an annual accreditation fee.
The group didn't set price caps on domain-registration costs, however, saying such limits were left out "in the belief that those types of restrictions would hamper, rather than promote, competition."
The comment period on the proposed guidelines will last until 3 March, when ICANN's directors are slated to vote on registrar-accreditation requirements at their meeting in Singapore.
