SAN DIEGO -- May 25, 1999
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced today that eight additional applicant companies have met its accreditation criteria and, upon completion of the ongoing testbed program, will be accredited to compete as registrars in the .com, .net, and .org domains. Currently, registration services in the .com, .net, and .org domains are provided by Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI), which has enjoyed an exclusive right to handle registrations under a 1993 Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Government. The eight companies named today will join the 5 already-accredited testbed registrars and the 29 post-testbed registrars that were announced by ICANN on April 21, 1999.

The eight companies named today are:

• ABACUS America, Inc./Aplus.Net http://www.abac.com
• Advanced Systems Consulting, Inc. http://www.advsys.com
• CASDNS, Inc. http://www.casdns.net
• Domain Bank, Inc. http://www.domainbank.net
• Marvin Enterprises, Inc./Global Knowledge Group http://www.gkg.net
• The Name-It Corporation/Advanced Internet Technologies, Inc. http://www.nameit.net
• NetNation Communications, Inc. http://www.netnation.com
• PSI-Japan, Inc. http://www.psi-japan.com

Further information about these companies will be available shortly on the ICANN website http://www.icann.org.

ABOUT REGISTRAR ACCREDITATION

The 8 companies named today have qualified to be accredited upon the completion of the competitive registrar testbed program for the Shared Registry System in the .com, .net, and .org domains. Under the Cooperative Agreement between NSI and the U.S. Government, the testbed program began on April 26 and is scheduled to last until June 24, 1999. Following the conclusion of the testbed phase, the Shared Registry System for the .com, .net, and .org domains will be opened on equal terms to all accredited registrars, meaning that any company that meets ICANN's standards for accreditation will be able to enter the market as a registrar and offer customers competitive domain name registration services in the .com, .net, and .org domains. A FAQ on the registrar accreditation and testbed programs has been posted at the ICANN official website.

The five companies accredited to participate in the testbed phase are: American Online; CORE (Internet Council of Registrars); France Telecom/Oliane; Melbourne IT; and register.com.

The 29 other applicant companies that have met ICANN's accreditation criteria and that will be accredited to compete as registrars upon completion of the testbed phase are: 9NetAvenue; A Technology Company; Active ISP; Alldomains.com; All West Communications; American Domain Name Registry; AT&T; Domain Direct; DomainRegistry.com; eNom, Inc.; InfoAvenue; InfoNetworks; InfoRamp; Interactive Telecom Network; Interdomain; Internet Domain Registrars; interQ Incorporated; MS Intergate; NameSecure.com; Name.Space Inc.; NetBenefit; NetNames; Nominalia; Port Information System AB; RCN; Telepartner AS; Verio; Virtual Internet; and WebTrends.

ABOUT ICANN

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a non-profit, international corporation formed in September 1998 to oversee a select set of Internet technical management functions currently managed by the U.S. Government, or by its contractors and volunteers. Specifically, ICANN is taking over responsibility for coordinating the assignment of protocol parameters, the management of the domain name system, the allocation of IP address space, and the management of the root server system.