ICANN gets new contract

Posted on 17 Aug 2006 at 12:03

The body that governs the smooth running of the Internet, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), has secured its future by signing a new five year contract with the US Department of Commerce to continue to manage the core IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) function.

The IANA is at the very foundation of the Internet and includes Internet Protocol (IP) address space allocation, protocol identifier assignment, and generic (gTLD) and country code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD) name system management, as well as root server system management functions.

The five year agreement is subdivided into a series of one year options for the services - presumably so that the US government, which has always claimed to manage ICANN at arms length, can keep the Corporation on a shorter leash. It also means that those who are advocating full independence of ICANN from the US government will not get their way until 2011 at the earliest.

The control of the Internet by the Department of Commerce is increasingly seen as a source of friction between the US and other countries around the world. Although the Internet is seen as a global service of benefit to all, many see control of the Internet as US hegemony in the digital age. Last year, at a United Nations sponsored conference in Tunisia, the US fought hard to retain control of ICANN against pressure from China and Iran to put the governance under the remit of the UN.

You can read the contract on the ICANN website (PDF).

Author: Steve Malone