Registry-Registrar separation will create interesting circumstances for established registries.
ICANN Senior Vice President Kurt Pritz sent a letter to Neustar Vice President Jeff Neuman last week (pdf) regarding registry-registrar separation.
ICANN’s board dropped a bombshell in November when it said there would be no restrictions on registrars owning registries for new top level domains. Observers questioned how exactly this would work for existing registries such as VeriSign, which runs .com and .net.
In the letter, Pritz points out specific language in the board’s resolution:
ICANN will permit existing registry operators to transition to the new form of registry agreement, except that additional conditions may be necessary and appropriate to address particular circumstances of established registries.
Pritz then tries to clarify what this means for Neustar, which runs .biz:
…if and when ICANN launches the new gTLD program, Neustar will be entitled to serve as both a registry and registrar for new gTLDs subject to any conditions that may be necessary and appropriate to address the particular circumstances of the existing .BIZ registry agreement…
So it’s clear that existing registries will be able to own registrars and offer new gTLDs. But what about existing TLDs? Would a registrar owned by Neustar be able to sell .biz?
The bigger question would be restrictions on VeriSign and .com. If VeriSign buys a registrar, you can expect serious focus from anti-trust authorities.
(thinking outside the box) 🙂
Lets think about it from the opposite direction.
I wonder what effect this will have with
the prime .us and .biz?
Will the registry not permit the domain to
drop but sell it to its own registrar to
sell on the open market?
Presently, the registry has to ask Icann’s permission to do direct sales.
We already know the registry sold the
one character domains direct or thru Sedo.
Having its own registrar it will permit Neustar
to do it on a larger scale.
Which means it will automatically spread to
Verisign, Affilias and Affilias/PIR.
It could totally change the domain drop process.
If this process is successful, they will
work with Icann to change the RAA and force
the expiring domains to return to the registry.
Then, Netsol/Enom/Tucows/Fab./Moniker/Godaddy
could not auction off the domains.
It might take a couple years but it could happen.
We know the major registrars will fight this
since this is how they make the majority of
their revenue.
@ Meyer – wow, hadn’t thought about that.
Anti-trust authorities have been unconcerned to this point; I don’t know why they would develop an interest now!
Meyer excellent out of the box thinking. But would they actually do it ? they would “screw” the mentioned registrars.
As you mentioned it might take a few years.. Good point though… I didn’t think of that till now.