The trial period for bringing new entrants into the lucrative ".com" registration business has been extended until the middle of July so the five initial registrars have more time to test the system, Network
Solutions and the Commerce Department said today.
The three-week extension was largely expected because it took the
"test-bed" registrars longer than originally scheduled to plug into the
shared registration system designed by NSI and the nonprofit
organization assuming responsibility for administration of the Internet.
To date, only one of the five registrars, Register.com, has begun selling domain
names under the shared registration system. It took until June 7 for the
New York City-based registrar to come online, about five weeks longer than
expected.
The other four are still testing their systems and have not said when they
will be operating under the shared registration system. Network Solutions
today said that only one of the five registrars has not "achieved
[shared registration system] technical certification" but declined
to name the company.
Today's announcement comes as a stalemate between NSI and the nonprofit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers appears to be growing. At issue is whether NSI--which until
recently had sole authority to register domain names ending in ".com,"
".net," and ".org" under a cooperative
agreement with the federal government--must sign an agreement with
ICANN to continue registering domain names. NSI also controls databases
crucial to running the Internet.
It is unclear when the four remaining test-bed registrars--CORE (Internet Council of Registrars),
Melbourne IT, France Telecom, and America Online--will begin selling names
under the shared registration system, but several of them have indicated
they hope to be operating by the end of the month.
Becky Burr, a Commerce Department
official overseeing the contract with NSI, indicated that the test-bed
period would be extended "if inadequate testing had taken place."
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