June 7, 2006 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Coalition for ICANN Transparency (cfit.info) announced on Tuesday that the House Committee on Small Business will hold a hearing today to discuss the proposed .COM deal between the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (icann.org) and VeriSign. The hearing is "another critical step" in preventing the consequential effects the deal would have on small businesses and consumers, according to CFIT.
"ICANN only agreed to this deal to settle VeriSign's litigation, and they have done it to the detriment of the broader Internet community," says John Berard, CFIT spokesperson. "This deal will only lead to higher priced 'lock-in' for consumers and market ?lock-out? for small business."
CFIT and other members of the Internet community including registrars, country code managers, at-large delegates, the business constituency and other registries, objected to the deal. Among their objections to the deal were that it was granted without public notice, allows VeriSign to expand its natural monopoly, gives VeriSign permanent control of the .COM database, reduces the traditional role of U.S. government oversight, and "Locks in" significant market differences between VeriSign-run and all other registries, creating more confusion to the market.
The proposed contract is scheduled to go in effect before the current contract expires in November 2007. It would set prices for a seven year period at a level $750 million higher than the current contract and $1.5 billion higher than a contract competitively bid, which CFIT says will put uneven economic pressure on small and medium-size registrars.
