VeriSign's contract to operate the .net registry expires on June 30th, and ICANN had issued a request for proposals from organizations interested in signing a new six-year agreement.

International Bids

In addition to VeriSign, organizations that have submitted offers are Dublin, Ireland-based Afilias Ltd., the international consortium CORE++, Germany's Denic domain registry, and Japan-based Sentan Registry Services.

At stake is a top-level domain that comprises a critical backbone of the Internet's infrastructure for e-commerce and communications , said Tom Galvin, a spokesperson for VeriSign.

"Most people focus on .com, because it appears more than any other top-level domain, but .net plans a disproportionately large role in the Internet," he told NewsFactor. "It is frequently used to reach .com addresses, particularly among retail sites."

Vital Internet Presence

VeriSign reports that .net supports some US$700 billion in annual e-commerce, 3 trillion annual page views, 300 billion annual e-mails, 58 percent of all Internet computer hosts and more than five million domain names. It also is employed by 8.5 million users in other domains, such as .gov, with .net name servers.

VeriSign's Galvin said his company has a strong case for retaining the domain registry, citing 100 percent availability of .net services during the past seven years. "Our track record is stellar, and we have invested $150 million in Internet infrastructure supporting the .net and .com domains," he said.

VeriSign's bid also has the backing of I.T. giants, including Microsoft , Sun Microsystems and MCI, he noted.

Stiff Competition

There is some stiff competition, however. Afilias' registry system currently supports some 7 million domains, including .org and .info, as well as seven country code domains. The company pledged to reduce the wholesale price for .net to $4 from $6 per year.

Core++ also promised price reductions and claims backing from global network information centers (NICs) including NICBR (Brazil), NIDA Consortium (Korea) and .za DNA (South Africa). The organization comprises domain registrars, registry operators and telecommunications and networking technology companies from Europe, North America, Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Germany's Denic manages more than eight million .de domains, and is pushing the introduction of Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) in March 2004. Denic promised to re-invest earnings from .net into infrastructure expansion.

Sentan, a joint venture of NeuLevel and Japan Registry Services, said it would expand .net to include improved services, global and multilingual support, and new technologies focused on Internet security and stability.

"Our competitors are making lots of claims, but our track record is superior, and we are already working to extend the .net infrastructure globally with distribution centers worldwide," Galvin said.