[Sydney, AUSTRALIA] auDA CEO Chris Disspain has described Primus claims that auDA was stalling competition in the .au domain name space as “self serving nonsense.”
“Whilst it might be beneficial to Primus to introduce competition
overnight, abandoning the public consultation process would certainly not be
in the best interests of the business community or the public,” he said.
auDA originally planned to introduce competition in October this year, a
deadline which has been moved forward to October 2001.
A Primus representative George Hazim in turn described Disspain’s statement
as “nonsense.”
“Primus has never ever wanted to abandon the public consultation process,
but we believe that the introduction of competition is in the best interests
of the community. This statement shows that [Disspain] is becoming very
defensive about the fact that we’re now in the market and posing a serious
threat to Melbourne IT.”
Disspain dismissed such accusations, warning Primus to cooperate with the
regulatory body. “To suggest that we are some kind of quasi government body
in the business of protecting Melbourne IT shows a fundamental lack of
understanding of auDA and it’s processes and procedures,” he said. “If
Primus is intent on becoming a registrar of .au domain names in the future I
would have thought that they would be making an effort to be properly
informed as to auDA’s role and its processes and procedures.” Disspain said
auDA would seek to work co-operatively with organizations such as Primus to
bring about the smooth transition to competition.
Primus was unmoved by the claim. “Do you see them going out there promoting
competition?” asked Hazim, “I don’t.”
Minister for communications Richard Alston recently signed a letter formally
awarding auDA government endorsement. The endorsement was to be awarded
based on auDA’s achievement of initial objectives set out by the federal
government, including that it “aim to enhance benefits to Internet users
through the promotion of competition, fair trading and provisions for
consumer protection and support.”
