John Demco
Proposed New ICANN Registrar Accreditation Agreement Posted – ICANN has posted for public comment a proposed new Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA). The document is the result of more than 18 months of negotiations between ICANN and the registrar community. The agreement is “a cornerstone of ICANN’s efforts to work to improve the image of the domain industry and to protect registrants through a further updated contractual framework.” Comments are being solicited until June 4.
Domain Name Registrations Top 252 Million Worldwide – According to VeriSign’s recent Domain Name Industry Brief [pdf], the fourth quarter of 2012 ended with more than 252 million domain name registrations worldwide, a year-over-year growth of 26.6 million or 11.8%. The annual growth as reported three months ago was 26.4 million or 12%. Total ccTLD registrations were 110.2 million, a 21.6% year-over-year increase. The ten largest domains are: .com, .de (Germany), .net, .tk (Tokelau), .uk (United Kingdom), .org, .cn (China), .info, .nl (Netherlands), and .ru (Russian Federation). The .cn domain has moved up one ranking since the third quarter.
Picks To Click
- ICANN is soliciting public input on how to address advice from its Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) regarding safeguards applicable to broad categories of New gTLD strings.
- A revised New gTLD timeline [pdf] has been posted, one of the results of the DNS Summit held in New York on April 23.
- The first Quebec Internet Exchange Point has been launched by the Montreal Internet Exchange (QIX).
- Byron Holland, CIRA President, comments on the new Internet Exchange Point (IXP) launched in Montreal.
Timeline
- Mon, Jul 1: .org registry fee increases
- Sun, Jul 14 – Thu, Jul 18: ICANN meetings in Durban, South Africa.
- Sun, Sep 1: .biz, .info registry fees increase