The end for domain name monopoly

Five companies appointed as Net registrars.

Network Solutions' lucrative monopoly on the registration of .com, .org, and .net domain names ends this week with the appointment of five new registrars, writes Jan Howells.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) has appointed five companies to test a new domain name registry system to be introduced this summer. Icann hopes competition will reduce the cost of registering web sites.

The trial registrars are America Online, France Telecom/Oleane, The Internet Council of Registrars (Core), Melbourne IT and Register.com.

Registration services in the .com, .net and .org domains are currently provided by Network Solutions Incorporated (NSI).

Exclusive rights to handle registrations were granted to NSI under a 1993 agreement with the US government.

Icann said 29 other companies have met its accreditation criteria and are expected to be named as domain name registrars once the testing program is complete in June.

The Shared Registry System for the .com, .net, and .org domains will be opened on equal terms to all accredited registrars. This means that any company which meets Icann's standards for accreditation will be able to enter the market as a registrar, and offer customers competitive domain name registration services in the .com, .net and .org domains.

'The announcement marks a major milestone in the joint efforts of the public and private sectors to bring Internet users the benefits of real competition in registration services in the most popular Net domains,' said Esther Dyson, Icann's interim chairman.

'The five testbed participants bring a wealth of technical capability, business experience and geographic reach to the testbed program,' she added.

NSI will continue to serve as the chief registrar until the test phase is complete. After that, the company will be required to meet the same guidelines as all other competitors.

Testbed registrars paid a $2,500 (#1,560) application fee to Icann. Once accredited, all registrars will pay a $5,000 annual accreditation fee and a one-time fee of $10,000 to license software NSI has developed by NSI to handle domain registrations.

The new participants are allowed to set their own pricing for the registration of domains. NSI charges $70 to rent a domain name for two years, and will charge the other registrars $9 per registration during the test period.