NSI makes timely change to domain payment policy
Some Internet users will have to start paying domain registration fees up front, Network Solutions says today--just before its credit policy is likely to come under attack on Capitol Hill.
NSI's invoicing practice also has come under fire from new registrants authorized by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to sell names with the three extensions, which account for up to three-quarters of the world's Internet addresses. Because ICANN--the body the Clinton administration appointed last year to take over administration of the Net--requires the registrars to receive payment before registering an address, NSI's rivals say the company's ability to offer customers credit puts them at a competitive disadvantage.
Ken Stubbs, chairman of CORE (Internet Council of Registrars), said his criticism of the NSI credit policy was included in written statements he submitted earlier today.
Under the new policy, NSI still will allow businesses that register domain names in bulk and meet other conditions to be billed later. By contrast, registrars hoping to get a piece of NSI's multimillion-dollar business are bound by an agreement imposed by ICANN preventing an address from being activated "unless and until [the registrar] is satisfied that it has received payment of its registration fee."
NSI doesn't appear to be the only player in the recent debate over domain name registration trying to preempt criticism at tomorrow's hearing. Following sharp criticism, ICANN said earlier this week that it would start conducting its board meetings in public and would suspend a $1 fee imposed on domain names. Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, is expected to take ICANN to task over the fee at tomorrow's hearing.
Witnesses with wide-ranging views on the future of domain registration are expected to testify at the hearing, which comes just a few weeks after Rep. Tom Bliley (R-Virginia) publicly criticized ICANN. The first panel will include representatives from NSI, ICANN, and the Commerce Department, which is responsible for enforcing a cooperative agreement that set up the current domain registration system.
A second panel is expected to include James Love, director of the Consumer Project on Technology; Mikki Barry, president of the Domain Name Rights Coalition; and representatives from America Online and two other registrars appointed to test a shared registration system.
The panel also will include two academics following the domain name issue and the head of the trade group the Information Technology Association of America.