ccTLDs strike back?

November 28th, 2002
By Demys News service

In an official statement Nominet - the .uk domain name authority - has called for "a significant rethink of ICANN's mission and how it has interpreted its mission" and has attacked ICANN's management of the IANA function.

The statement notes that Nominet "fully supports the decision made by members of the country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) to withdraw from the Domain Name Supporting Organisation (DNSO) in order to explore alternative ways of managing the IANA function and, more generally, the interests of the ccTLD community."

The running of the domain name system is essentially divided into two major functions - one concerned with policy and governance and the other dealing in technical matters such as maintaining administrative contacts, updating name servers and other administrative tasks - this is the IANA function mentioned by Nominet. Operation of each element is awarded on a contractual basis by the US Department of Commerce and, in recent times, both functions have been carried out by ICANN. However, the contract for the IANA function is due for renewal in March, 2003 and there have been rumblings that some ccTLD operators may consider putting in a bid to run IANA. It is not known whether Nominet would support or take part in such a move.

In their statement Nominet suggest that ccTLD operators have become disgruntled partly because it has been perceived that ICANN has attempted to use its control of IANA to try to force through changes in policy that would give it more control in the country code space:

The ccTLDs are disappointed that ICANN has attempted to withhold performing essential services such as management of changes to addresses, name servers etc in an attempt to enforce the party concerned into a contractual relationship which is unacceptable to almost all ccTLDs.

[Another] issue has been ICANN's method of handling of re-delegation requests, which the country code operators believe should be decided by the Local Internet Community in consultation with local governments, not by ICANN.

In addition, Nominet have also expressed concern about the way in which ICANN is funded:

There have been several well-documented stumbling blocks with the current ICANN relationship. For example, while the ccTLD operators have been asked to contribute a third of the budget for the running of the US Corporation, much of the expenditure is devoted to gTLD issues and dealing with internal US politics.

Nominet are clearly dissatisfied with ICANN's role & structure and, as one of the world's top ccTLDs operators, they are in a stronger position than most to affect Internet policy at the highest levels. Their statement is a clear indication that they would like to see major changes in Internet governance in the next few months.

If the suggested bid to run the IANA function were to be successful it would effectively wrest a significant of amount control of the Internet away from ICANN. However, the US Department of Commerce may be unwilling to change the status quo when the contract is renewed. Demys news will keep you posted in the run up to March's renewal deadline.