ICANN Accepting .net Proposals

November 2004

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (icann.org) is expected to formally request proposals for the management of the .net domain framework Friday. Currently overseen by VeriSign Inc., which also controls the .com framework, the contract for .net management will expire on June 30 and several companies are rushing to compete for future contracts.

"Thirty-seven of the top 100 Web sites rely on .net, and about 37 percent of all e-commerce relies on .net to get to its destination," says Tom Galvin, VP of government relations for VeriSign. "It's vitally important that a year from now .net runs at least as well as, or better than, it's running now."

Galvin says that the .net TLD is flooded with an estimated 150 billion emails every day. Expected VeriSign competitors for the .net contract include German-based Deutches Network Information Center, which currently maintains the registry for the .de domain; NeuLevel Inc., which manages the .biz registry; and Afilias Ltd., which handles the .info and .org registries.