[registrars] InterNIC Referral Page

["Michael D. Palage" <mpalage@infonetworks.com>]

---------------------- Forwarded by Louis L. Touton/JonesDay on 11/27/99
04:36 PM ---------------------------
From:	Louis L. Touton on 11/27/99 04:29 PM
Extension:	x32465
To:	registrar@registrar.icann.org@internet
cc:
Subject:	InterNIC Referral Page

Registrars:
Amendment 19 to NSI's Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Government (one of
the agreements among the U.S. Commerce Department, NSI, and ICANN approved
earlier this month) provides that for the next six months the internic.net
web site will be operated by NSI for the Commerce Department to provide
referrals to all ICANN-accredited registrars registering domain names in the
.com, .net, and .org TLDs.  At the conclusion of that six-month period the
internic.net domain (and internic.com and internic.org, too) will be
transferred to the Commerce Department.
The referral site will be launched on 1 December 1999.  To expedite
implementation of this competitively important resource, we decided to
proceed with the initial version without waiting for public input on the
site's content.  In January, we plan to revise the site based on comments we
receive, which may be submitted after 3 December to referral-page@icann.org.
The initial version of the site will have listings of the "live" registrars
organized by registrar name and country.  (A week or two after launch, we
will also implement a listing of the language(s) supported by each registrar
based on information NSI-Registry is presently gathering.)  The site will
also feature FAQs regarding domain names, how to register them, and the
options customers have with the new competitive system.  It will also
provide web access to the NSI-Registry Whois service.
The site will only list registrars actually operating.  (Accredited
registrars not yet in operation will continue to be listed at the icann.org
web site, which will be linked from the internic.net referral site.)  Upon
meeting the requirements for "going live," registrars will be asked by
NSI-Registry to indicate the schedule on which they want their "live" status
publicized.  NSI-Registry will attempt to comply with the requested schedule
in updating the internic.net referral site.
The reformation of the internic.net referral site offers the prospect of
helping ensure a level competitive playing field among all accredited
registrars.  I hope you will take some time during December to review the
initial version of the referral site, to consider how it might be improved,
and to submit your views to referral-page@icann.org.
Louis Touton
Vice President and General Counsel
reply to:  touton@icann.org