A.  Enhancement of Competition — Registry Level

When ISOC began evaluating the opportunities associated with becoming the registry operator of the .ORG TLD, it understood the necessity to balance the needs of increasing competition at the registry level while maintaining the stability of the .ORG registry for the benefit of the MORE THAN two million registrants. Based upon the importance that the ICANN Board placed on operational stability during its recent meeting in Accra, ISOC realized that it would need to partner with an established back-end registry infrastructure provider in order to maximize its opportunity to become the .ORG registry operator.

ISOC believes that the 500,000-domain name benchmark referenced in C32 provides an excellent measurement for the ability of a registry operator to guarantee a stable transition from the current registry operator. To identify a suitable back-end registry infrastructure to partner with, ISOC identified those TLDs with over 500,000 domain names under management:

Figure 58
Registries With Over 500,000 Names Under Management

Then ISOC analyzed the following factors for each of the above registry operators: 1) whether each shared registry system was established and robust, 2) the registry protocol each uses, and 3) each registry operator's relationship with ICANN-accredited registrars. The chart below summarizes some of the factors considered in our evaluation process.

Figure 59
Evaluation Factors

After balancing the needs of increasing competition at the registry level while maintaining the stability of the .ORG registry, ISOC felt that Afilias was uniquely qualified to provide the registry infrastructure in its bid for the .ORG re-delegation.

As the registry operator for .INFO, the first and most popular of the seven proof-of-concept registry operators selected by ICANN, Afilias currently has over 805,000 domain names under management. In addition to .INFO, Afilias provides registry services to support the .VC (St. Vincent and the Grenadines) ccTLD and is an affiliate of AusRegistry Pty. Ltd., the registry operator for the COM.AU, NET.AU, ASN.AU, ID.AU, and ORG.AU second-level domains.

Afilias has a diverse multinational presence (offices in Ireland, the United States, Canada, and the UK) and has demonstrated the ability to resolve complex policy issues (.INFO country names and inappropriately registered Sunrise names). It has a stable EPP registry implementation that is capable of supporting a RRP protocol during transition as required by the ICANN contract; and has demonstrated experience in transitioning a TLD between registry operators.

Afilias has also successfully demonstrated a robust EPP protocol that has processed over 20,000 intra-registrar transfers. In enhancing competition at the registrar level, it is critical that a registry be able to support domain name portability between registrars. This level of domain name portability is unmatched in any of the other proof of concept registry providers to date.

Another factor in ISOC's selection of Afilias is that it strengthens a currently small but promising back-end registry services provider ensuring the continued availability of a realistic alternative to VeriSign. Although ICANN succeeded in introducing competition into the marketplace by accrediting a large number of registrars, market conditions suggest that are likely to be far fewer viable registry infrastructure providers. ISOC believes that given this reality, competition and stability is best served at the registry level by selecting a small but established registry service provider with an proven record of maintaining over a half a million names, as opposed to supporting a registry infrastructure provider with less proven accomplishments.

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B. Enhancement of Competition — Registrar Level

Given the need to provide a stable transition for .ORG registrants, the following statistics reinforce the likelihood that Afilias will be able to provide registrars with a seamless transition for their registrants.

Out of the 102 registrars authorized by VeriSign to provide .COM, .ORG, and .NET registrations, the great majority are already Afilias-authorized, which means they have passed Afilias' rigorous operational testing and engineering (OT&E) process and have proved their ability to use the EPP protocol. More importantly, over 99.2 percent of the current .ORG domain names are sponsored by a registrar that is already Afilias-authorized. The overwhelming majority of .ORG names are with registrars who are already using Afilias' EPP system on a day-to-day basis.

Figure 60
Registrars Market Share in .ORG vs. Afilias Authorization

An additional factor to increase competitive registrar services is the removal of the $100,000 surety instrument currently required by VeriSign registry to register .ORG domain names. To further enhance the competitive structure of the registry market for the benefit of registrars, the ISOC proposal also seeks to make .ORG more competitive versus other TLDs. The .ORG domain has been declining recently, as promotional registrations have not been not renewed and ccTLDs and the new TLDs have taken market share. ISOC's proposal demonstrates how it will reinvigorate the .ORG domain behind clear positioning and effective marketing, restoring .ORG to a competitive position within this challenging market.

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(a)   The Applicant or Any Entity Identified in Item C13

The Internet Society (ISOC) is comprised of more than 137 organizational members, including nonprofit, trade and professional organizations, foundations, educational institutions, corporations, government agencies, and other international organizations that share a commitment to the health of the Internet. A list of all Internet Society organizational members can be found online at http://www.isoc.org/orgs/orgsbyname.shtml. Afilias became an executive level organizational member of the Internet Society earlier this year, joining other registry operators such as CORE, DENIC eG, EDUCAUSE, Melbourne IT, Nominet UK, and VeriSign.

Donald Heath currently serves as a director of Afilias and sits on the Internet Society's Board of Trustees. After formal introductions between the Internet Society and Afilias, Mr. Heath recused himself from all further discussions in connection with this matter.

On May 15, 2002 the Internet Society's Board of Trustees overwhelmingly approved the decision to contract with Afilias to help secure the reallocation of the .ORG registry. Specifically, the Board authorized the President of the Internet Society, Lynn St. Amour, to enter into a Letter of Intent (LOI) with Afilias. On May 31, 2002, the Internet Society and Afilias entered into a LOI in connection with this RFP, which incorporated the following terms:

• ISOC will submit an application to ICANN to become the registry operator for the .ORG registry;
  
  
• In the application, ISOC will propose the establishment of a separate entity, owned or controlled solely by the Internet Society: Public Interest Registry, or PIR. PIR will serve as the registry operator, if the application is selected by ICANN;
  
  
• ISOC (or its designee, PIR) will contract with Afilias to provide registry technical and support services in connection with the operation of the registry;
  
  
• ISOC (or its designee, PIR) will be the sole beneficiary of the US$5 million endowment anticipated to be paid by VeriSign as set forth in Section 5.1.4 of the current .ORG registry agreement;
  
  
• The application proposes a $6 a year registration fee, with $4 going to Afilias for registry infrastructure services and $2 going to ISOC (or its designee, PIR) to provide administrative and policy oversight functions and other outreach activities; and

Afilias has committed to provide a $250,000 line of credit to PIR to cover any start-up expenses, contingent upon the selection of ISOC's bid by ICANN.

(b)   Any Operator of a DNS Registry Having More than 500,000 Registered Names.

Afilias is a privately held Irish limited corporation. It was founded in September of 2000 by a consortium of 18 ICANN-accredited domain name registrars, located across 10 countries: 1stDomain.net, a division of G+D International LLC; Corporate Domains, Inc.; Domain Bank, Inc.; DomainInfo AB; DomainPeople, Inc.; Domain Registration Services; Enter-Price Multimedia AG (EPAG); Internet Council of Registrars (CORE); interQ, Inc.; Netnames International Ltd; Network Solutions, Inc. Registrar Operations; Polar Software Ltd. d/b/a Signdomains.com; Procurement Services International (Japan), Inc.; Register.com; Schlund + Partner AG; Sitename; Ascio (formerly Speednames, Inc.); Tucows, Inc.

Network Solutions is a wholly owned corporation of VeriSign, Inc., which currently operates four registries in excess of 500,000 domain names: .COM, .NET, .ORG, and .CC. Currently no Network Solutions or VeriSign employee or representative serves on the Afilias Board of Trustees/Directors.

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