DSTI/ICCP/TISP(2004)2/FINAL
Table 3. The gTLDs registries
gTLDs Registries Location
URL
.aero SITA
Switzerland
www.sita.aero
.biz neulevel
United States
www.neulevel.biz
(Joint venture of NeuStar and Melbourne IT)
.com VeriSign
United
States
www.verisign.com
.coop dotCoop
United States
www.coop
(National Cooperative Business Association)
.info Afilias
United
States
www.afilias.info
.museum MuseDoma
Sweden
about.museum
.name
The Global Name Registry (GNR)
United States
www.gnr.name
.net VeriSign
United
States
www.verisign.com
.org
Public Interest Registry (PIR) (Afilias)
United States
www.pir.org
.pro RegistryPro
United
States
www.registrypro.com
Source
: OECD based on ICANN.
Unsponsored gTLD registries
Unsponsored registries are organisations which are designated, by ICANN through a registry
agreement, with responsibility for a gTLD. This registry agreement provides the authority for registries to
act as the sole operator for the applicable gTLD. The agreement also specifies the general obligations of
the registry and ICANN as well as administrative issues, such as dispute resolution processes and the fees
to be paid to ICANN and those fees charged to registrars.
When ICANN commenced its reform of the gTLD market structure there was only one unsponsored
registry. At that stage, VeriSign (following the purchase of Network Solutions) had responsibility
for .
com
,
.net
and
.org
. In January 2003, the responsibility for
.org
was shifted by ICANN from VeriSign
to the Public Interest Registry (PIR). PIR was selected from 11 other candidates and Afilias performs the
back office registry operations.
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This transfer followed the expiry of the registry agreement between
ICANN and VeriSign, for the responsibility of
.org
.
The current agreement between ICANN and VeriSign, for responsibility of the
.com
registry expires
in November 2007, but has a four year renewal option.
10
The agreement between ICANN and VeriSign for
responsibility of the
.net
registry expires in June 2005.
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The
.net
registry agreement obligates ICANN to
adopt an open, transparent procedure for designating a successor registry operator by no later than one year
prior to the end of the agreement (
i.e.
30 June 2004). Under the
.net
registry agreement, the incumbent
registry (VeriSign), is free to enter into whatever procedure is adopted by ICANN for the selection of the
new registry operator. Apart from VeriSign and PIR, the decision to create new gTLDs in 2000 added four
new uTLD registries. The four new registries were Afilias, GNR, NeuLevel and RegistryPro.
Sponsored gTLD registries
A sponsored TLD is a specialised domain that has a sponsor representing a specific community that is
served by the TLD. The sponsor carries out delegated policy formulation responsibilities over many
matters concerning the TLD. The sponsor is designated by ICANN through a registry agreement.
Some sTLD registries say that by restricting registrations to eligible candidates they have the potential
to deliver a secure, predictable and trustworthy communications and business medium.
12
The
.aero
sTLD
is intended for the air transport community and the sponsor is SITA (
Societe Internationale de
Telecommunications Aeronautiques
). SITA is a leading provider of global information and
telecommunication solutions to the air transport and related industries.
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