ICANN Extends Deadline for Domain Registration Competitors

The Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers Monday extended the registration deadline for companies hoping to compete with Network Solutions Inc. by a week.

The non-profit organization said it extended the application submission deadline to April 8 after receiving complaints from prospective registrars who said an insufficient amount of technical information was available to complete the application process.

Prospective registrants were also unclear about licensening fee to be paid to NSI, the terms of the licensing contract that registrars will sign with NSI and the rules that allow competing registrars equal access to expiration and renewal information for existing registrations.

“ICANN has been assured that NSI and the U.S. Department of Commerce are working expeditiously to resolve outstanding issues under Amendment 11, including items (1) – (5), above. Indeed, ICANN today received and posted a FAQ from NSI generally describing the technical requirements for registrars to interact with its SRS registry/registrar interface,” ICANN said in a statement.

ICANN said it plans to announce the five accredited testbed registrars on April 21.

For more information, see the ICANN update.