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AOL to assign Net names
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April 21, 1999: 12:51 p.m. ET
Company is one of five firms to break Network Solutions' monopoly
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - America Online Inc. will be one of the first five companies that will compete with Network Solutions Inc. in the Internet address registration business, officials said Wednesday.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a nonprofit group designated by the Commerce Department to break Network Solutions '(NSOL) government-appointed monopoly, also announced that 29 other firms met its requirements and are expected to become registrars later this year.
Along with AOL (AOL), U.S.-based Register.com, France Telecom, Melbourne IT of Australia, and the Internet Council of Registrars (CORE) were selected as the newest registrars responsible for assigning names with the .com, .org and .net suffixes.
Those companies will begin assigning names April 26.
"Today's announcement marks a major milestone in the joint efforts of the public and private sectors to bring Internet users the benefits of real competition in registration services in the most popular Internet domains -- .com, .net, and .org," said Esther Dyson, ICANN's interim chairman.
ICANN will use the first five companies as a 60-day test for eventually opening up competition to more companies. AT&T Corp. (T) is the most notable of the 29 other companies expected to participate in the plan's second phase, which is slated to begin June 24.
Eventually, ICANN also plans to add new suffixes, or top-level domain names.
The new registrars will have to pay Network Solutions $9 per year for each Internet address they register. They'll also have to shell out a one-time fee of $10,000 for use of Network Solutions' shared registry database, a term that ICANN isn't exactly thrilled with.
"It's a lot of money for smaller companies to pay," said Andrew McLaughlin, an ICANN senior advisor. "We'd like to see smaller companies participate."
Network Solutions has assigned more than 4 million Internet addresses under an exclusive government contract since 1993. The company charges $70 to register a name.
Network Solutions said in a statement that it welcomed the new entrants to the market.
"We believe the potential market to be more than 100 million domain names," said Bob Korzeniewski, Network Solutions chief financial officer. "There is room for many successful players and we will continue to be a leader in this space."
AOL shares were up 7-1/4 at 135-15/16 in midday trading; shares of Network Solutions jumped 13-1/8 to 73-1/8. 
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