Final Domain Name Plan Due Soon

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May 20, 1998 (12:00 AM EDT)

By Margie Semilof,

As the U.S. government puts the final touches on its Internet domain names transition plan, future arguments will likely return to what this is really about -- the provisioning of IP addresses.

Due out any day, the document is a blueprint to transition Internet addresses from government to private control. The plan was crafted by Ira Magaziner, a senior adviser to the president for policy development.

Magaziner advised giving control to a private, non-profit corporation. The corporation will be formed immediately after the paper is rubber stamped and released, officials said.

The transition has been wracked with controversy, first over management of the system, and then over domain name trademarks. But some experts said those issues were temporary and will disappear into history.

"Future contention will revolve around IP addresses, which was always the issue," said Tony Rutkowski, director of the Center for Next Generation Internet, Washington, D.C.

As one example, the proposed merger of WorldCom and MCI Communications has perhaps two main areas that trouble competitors: one issue is peering, or which carrier can swap data freely with another, another deals with the substantial amount of address space the combined entity represents, Rutkowski said.

"Any new player would have to spend significant amounts of money to get relatively small blocks of addresses," he said.

The government document has been making its way through a public comment period following its release in January. The final version, accounting for comments, is due any day.

Network Solutions, Herndon, Va., is wrapping up a five-year contract to oversee the domain name infrastructure. That contract officially ended in March, but was extended to September.

The white paper is important because it marks a transition away from government control to an industry-driven body that is public, open, and balanced. Rutkowski said, it may also be used as a model for similar issues like IP telephony, peering, and authentication.

Members of the new board will be determined over the summer. This board will have the job of deciding about future top-level domain names and the status of addresses like .com.

Industry participants do not expect to see new domain names until October. Many are satisfied by the way the U.S. government has researched the transition plan.

"I don't think anyone will be completely happy or completely upset," said Jay Fenello, president at Iperdome, an Atlanta ISP. "Magaziner did as good a job as possible bringing together this difficult issue."