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On April 21, 1999, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced the five companies that have been selected to participate in the initial testbed phase of the new competitive Shared Registry System for .COM, .NET and .ORG domains.

The testbed program (Phase I) began on April 26, 1999 and was originally set to run until June 24, 1999.
Photo by Bret Fausett. Published with permission.
Singapore - March 4, 1999

The testbed period was extended five times by the Department of Commerce was finally set for completion on November 5, 1999 to coincide with ICANN's Annual Meeting. In Phase II, the Shared Registration System for COM, .NET and .ORG. was opened to registrars that meet ICANN's standards for accreditation, adopted March 4, 1999. As of November 10, 2000, ICANN has accredited 159 registrars. Of these, 135 are listed below and the latest clutch of 24 accreditations is posted in a November 10, 2000 announcement.

September 10, 1999 - Press Release: U.S. Commerce Department, NSI, ICANN Closing in on Domain Name Agreements: Testbed Extension Granted to September 30.

August 6, 1999 - Press Release: Commerce Department, Network Solutions Agree to Add New Registrars and Extend Shared Registration Test Bed Until September 10, 1999.

July 16, 1999 - Press Release: Commerce Department, Network Solutions Agree to Extend Shared Registration Test Bed Until August 6, 1999.

June 25, 1999 - Press Release: Commerce Department, Network Solutions Agree to Extend Shared Registration Test Bed Until July 16, 1999.

TESTBED REGISTRARS, IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER

America Online

http://www.aol.com

Based in Dulles, Virginia, AOL is the world's leader in interactive services, web brands, Internet technologies, and e-commerce services. It was ounded in 1985 and has more than 17 million members.

CORE (Internet Council of Registrars)

http://www.corenic.org

CORE is a not-for-profit international membership association of Internet domain name registrars. It was created in the Spring of 1997 to establish and manage a shared registry system for 7 proposed new generic top-level domains.

France Telecom/ Oléane

http://www.oleane.com/english/

Created in 1989, Oléane grew into a leading ISP serving business customers in France. It was acquired in 1998 by France Telecom, one of the world's leading telecommunications carriers with operations in more than 50 countries. France Telecom is a CORE registrar

Melbourne IT

http://www.internetnamesww.com/

Fee: $35/US per year for each .COM, .NET and .ORG registration, from 1 to 10 years as of 15-Jan-00

Melbourne IT is an Australian IT company that administers the .COM.AU domain, the largest country code-based commercial domain name in the Asia-Pacific region. Melbourne IT is a CORE registrar.

Register.com

http://www.register.com

Fee: $70/2 years, $35 each year after for a .COM, .ORG, or .NET registration.

Register.com is a division of Forman Interactive Corp., a provider of Internet-based servicesfor small and medium-sized businesses. Forman Interactive Corp. was founded in 1994 and is based in New York, NY. Register.com has registered more than .5 million domain names.

ACCREDITED POST-TESTBED REGISTRARS

These 129 companies join the five testbed registrars that have been accredited by ICANN to participate in the Shared Registry System for .COM, .NET, and .ORG. They are listed in alphabetical order by country. The latest 24 additions were announced by ICANN on November 10, 2000.

UNITED STATES

AUSTRALIA

AUSTRIA

  • Globedom Datenkommunikations GmbH d/b/a Globedom - globedom.com

CANADA

CATALONIA

CHINA

DENMARK

FRANCE

GERMANY

HONG KONG

INDIA

ISRAEL

I TALY

JAPAN

KOREA

KUWAIT

NEW ZEALAND

NORWAY

SINGAPORE

SPAIN

SWEDEN

TAIWAN

UNITED KINGDOM

WHOIS

A database containing the records of domain name registrations

INTERNIC WHOIS
Referral information for the registrar of a specific gTLD registration record
 
UWHOIS.COM
Searches multiple gTLD and country-code top-level domains
 
ALLWHOIS.COM
WHOIS data for all country code registries.
 
WHONAMI.COM
WHOOIS search site that covers gTLDs and ccTLDs in one search
 
SWHOIS.NET
Universal domain name search to find the holder of a domain or IP address across all registries and registrars, including ccTLDs
 
WHONOME.COM
Worldwide domain name search including ccTLD registries
 
QWHO.COM
Complete WHOIS information across all gTLD registrars
 
ONEWHOIS.COM
Check sthe gTLD Shared Registry System database and then queries the specific ICANN- accredited registrar database to provide information on the domain name registration.
 
BETTERWHOIS.COM
Searches the gTLD shared database registry and then queries appropriate registrar.
 
All the registrars must provide free access to their WHOIS data and are barred from providing any legal restriction on its use with the exception of preventing its use for the purposes of spamming. Third-party bulk access must also be provided, for which the registrar is entitled to charge up to $10,000 a year. Many WHOIS databases are difficult to locate on the registrars' websites. Below, we have posted the URLs for the WHOIS databases of the currently operating registrars (updated 03-Aug-00). We give stars to all those registrars who have an obvious link to their WHOIS database on their home page. In terms of details provided, your mileage may vary.
- THIS IS WORK IN PROGRESS -
 

 

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