Seven additional companies Wednesday joined the growing number of domain registrars that will eventually compete with Network Solutions Inc.
CommuniTech.Net Inc., GANDI, iDirections Inc., InterNeXt, ProBoard Technologies, PSI-USA and Secure Domains Inc. join the 57 other firms that have already been accredited as registrars.
The firms named Wednesday will be able to participate in the trial of the new shared registration system which is currently set to end on Sept. 10. Until earlier this summer, Network Solutions was the sole registrar of domain names — a distinction it had held since it won an exclusive government contract to manage the domain system in 1992.
On Aug. 6, the trial of the new registration system was extended to allow Network Solutions and the government to resolve several outstanding issues. Those include how much NSI will be able to charge competing registrars for access to the shared registration system which it will manage.
Currently, NSI charges shared registration participants $9 a year for every domain name they register. NSI said the fee is needed to cover costs it incurred in setting up the new system.