6月9日消息 VeriSign公司本周被互联网名称与数字地址分配机构(ICANN)选中在今后六年继续负责管理第三大域名“.net”。

　　除了管理合起来占超过一半注册域名的“.com”和“.net”之外，VeriSign还控制着所有因特网域名的主目录，这即意味着网络上所有的流量或多或少都得接触该公司的计算机。

　　做为“.net”的负责人，VeriSign将拥有做出重大政策变化的技术能力，虽然一些人质疑它是否有合法的权力。

　　即将于7月1日生效的这份新合同将为VeriSign每年带来2000多万美元的收入。它管理“.com”每年的收入大约为2.25亿美元。

　　“.net”域名的所有人在下次交费的时候可能会享受到更低的价格，因为VeriSign已许诺降低收费。VeriSign当前为每个“.com”和“.net”域名收取的年费为6美元，它在新的合同中答应将它降低到4.25美元，其中的75美分将上交给ICANN。

　　但大多数因特网用户近期内预计将感受不到任何变化。

　　VeriSign是在2000年收购Network Solutions后才接管了“.net”。在被收购前，Network Solutions从1993年起一直负责管理这个域名。

　　全球现在共有580万个“.net”域名。“.com”和德国的“.de”是排在它之前的两大类两个域名。

ICANN Board Designates VeriSign to Retain Control of .NET Registry

8 June 2005

Marina del Rey, CA – 8 June 2005 – ICANN’s Board has named VeriSign, Inc. as the designated .NET successor registry. ICANN has also approved entering into a new agreement with VeriSign for their continued management of the .NET registry for six additional years. This announcement is the culmination of the .NET RFP and successor registry process that began on 6 March 2004 and included an independent evaluation of VeriSign and four other applicants.

In taking this action ICANN’s Board considered the entire RFP Process, an independent evaluator’s report, Internet community comments and the terms of the new agreement.

ICANN hired Telcordia Technologies, Inc. (an independent third party) to conduct the evaluation of the applications and the qualifications of the applicants. In April, Telcordia declared that all five applicants were capable of running the registry for .NET but gave the highest ranking to the incumbent registry, VeriSign. In May, Telcordia confirmed this ranking after evaluating an additional round of comments from all five applicants.

VeriSign’s current agreement for .NET is scheduled to run out on 30 June 2005. The agreed framework for ICANN and VeriSign’s new arrangement will be set out in a new .NET Registry agreement which will strike a balance between innovation and business certainty, with the need to ensure competition, security and stability in the domain name system.

Commenting on the designation, Dr. Paul Twomey, President and CEO of ICANN, stated: “We would like to thank all five qualified applicants, the entire Internet community, ICANN’s Generic Supporting Organization, and Telcordia for the work in making this a successful process.”

A detailed outline of the .NET Successor Registry Process can be found at the following link:
http://icann.org/tlds/dotnet-reassignment/net-rfp-process-summary-08jun05.pdf

Additionally, here are some of the key documents and announcement from the process:

27 May 2005 Telcordia Report .NET RFP on Evaluation
http://icann.org/tlds/dotnet-reassignment/net-rfp-finalreport-issue4-27may05.pdf

3 May 2005 ICANN Posts Telcordia Review of Findings
http://icann.org/tlds/dotnet-reassignment/review-of-findings-03may05.pdf

20 Jan 2005 ICANN Receives Five Applications to Operate .NET
http://icann.org/announcements/announcement-19jan05.htm

12 Dec 2004 ICANN .NET Reassignment RFP
http://icann.org/tlds/dotnet-reassignment/net-rfp-final-10dec04.pdf

5 Aug 2004 Final Report from the GNSO on .NET Criteria
http://www.gnso.icann.org/issues/dotnet/dotnet-reportv9.pdf

29 Jun 2004 Final Procedure for Designating Subsequent .NET Registry Operator
http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-29jun04.htm

6 Mar 2004 ICANN Board Resolution regarding Preparation for the Designation of a Transparent Procedure for Designating a Subsequent .NET Registry Operator
http://www.icann.org/minutes/rome-resolutions-06mar04.htm

About ICANN:

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is an internationally organized, non-profit corporation that has responsibility for Internet Protocol (IP) address space allocation, protocol identifier assignment, generic (gTLD) and country code (ccTLD) Top-Level Domain name system management, and root server system management functions. As a private-public partnership, ICANN is dedicated to preserving the operational stability of the Internet; to promoting competition; to achieving broad representation of global Internet communities; and to developing policy appropriate to its mission through bottom-up, consensus-based processe s.

Any press enquires should be addressed to Tanzanica King at ICANN on +1 310 301 5804. Any follow-up questions or requests can be sent to press@icann.org.