Featured Blogs

Caribbean Network Operators Group Hosts 17th Regional Meeting

The seventeenth regional meeting of the Caribbean Network Operators Group, CaribNOG 17, took place at the Hilton Barbados Resort, Bridgetown, Barbados from April 10 to 12, 2019, with the theme "Securing Caribbean Networks." Approximately 100 participants, including technical experts from the global Internet community and other stakeholders from across the Caribbean, joined dozens of online participants for this first of two regional gatherings for the year. more

Broadband Tariffs: The Significant Gap Between Residential and Business

Analysis from Point Topic's recent reports on global broadband tariffs has revealed a significant gap in residential and business tariffs worldwide. Clearly businesses are paying more for their services than residential consumers but the relative differences in the ratios is more marked than might be expected. The first thought is that they are paying for more bandwidth and that is true to an extent. more

NGO Community Urges ICANN to Exercise Independent Judgment as It Reviews the .ORG Sale

ICANN is reviewing the Internet Society's proposed sale of Public Interest Registry, the .ORG registry operator, to private equity firm Ethos Capital. ICANN effectively has the power to stop the sale by terminating PIR's Registry Agreement. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, NTEN, Consumer Reports, Americans for Financial Reform and several other organizations joined Monday's Public Forum at ICANN67 to ask questions about how ICANN plans to review the change of control of the .ORG registry... more

We Are Protecting the Internet, Not Giving It to the United Nations

Like many foreigners, I follow U.S. politics closely. What happens in Washington, D.C. on trade, economics, foreign policy, and security matters can often have ripple effects across the world. This is also true with respect to internet policy, and like many who work in the internet industry, I am getting increasingly concerned by some of the news coming out of Washington. more

Three Views of Multistakeholder Leadership in the Age of Sovereignty

As multistakeholder governance nears a critical juncture, leaders must navigate diverging views, geopolitical pressures and technological upheaval. With sovereignty concerns mounting, the Internet's institutions face a complex future that demands deft stewardship. more

Food for Thought on the “New TLD” Business Models

There is always some degree of confusion in discussions about the "new TLDs". Some points of view try to be optimistic, others on the contrary only highlight the bad news, and most refer indistinctly to the "new TLDs" as if they did not break down into different segments, each of which obeys dynamics and constraints of its own. The purpose of this post is to provide some food for thought and to shed some light on those dynamics and constraints... more

Reaching Google via Asia?

Across the Internet, yesterday, Google users twittered, blogged and emailed that Google search and mail were not usable. And, yesterday afternoon, on Google’s official blog, Urs Hoelzle reported that Google “direct[ed] some […] web traffic through Asia”... Even though Google is very well-connected to a diverse set of other networks, two of these relationships predominate. It is through these relationships that much of the Internet reaches Google... more

.COM - a Return to Balance at Mid-2023

Here are the mid-year trends of the the .COM Top Level Domain. Our analysis is based on data transmitted by Verisign, the company tasked with the management of .COM, to ICANN, as of 30/06/23. To conduct our study, we will be using two performance indicators taken from the reports sent by Verisign to ICANN and published in its 'Registry transactions Reports'1: stocks at 30/06 and 31/12 of each year and monthly creations consolidated over a 12-month period. more

ICANN Regional Meeting and More Questions on nTLDs

Congratulations and thanks to ICANN for hosting the North America Regional meeting at the Sheraton in downtown Toronto, Canada. This event was done first class and was in my opinion a highly successful meeting... At this regional ICANN meeting many interesting topics were covered. Some topics though not at the foremost of my mind, surprisingly were not only highly interesting but very informative. more

Elizabeth “Jake” Feinler: The Mother of Whois

Elizabeth "Jake" Feinler, known as the "Mother of Whois," transformed internet infrastructure as the ARPANET Network Information Center's lead. Her work in organizing data and pioneering Whois set the foundation for modern internet protocols. A trailblazer in technology, she championed inclusivity, mentoring women and minorities, while her legacy endures as a cornerstone of the digital age. more

Not Another Yearly Recap: What 2018 Tells Us About .brand Domains

It's that special time again! Time to unwind, spend time with loved ones -- and to reflect on another 12 months of progress across the .brand movement. Over the last few years, we've used this end of year assessment and our efforts with MakeWay.World to show you how the industry is being embraced globally -- through a range of examples, statistics and predictions about how the year ahead will be our best ever. more

An Economic Perspective on Internet Centrality

The IETF met in November 2022 in London. Among the many sessions that were held in that meeting was a session of the Decentralised Internet Infrastructure Research Group, (DINRG). The research group's ambitions are lofty: DINRG will investigate open research issues in decentralizing infrastructure services such as trust management, identity management, name resolution, resource/asset ownership management, and resource discovery. more

Will Altanovo’s Maneuvering Continue to Delay .web?

he launch of .web top-level domain is once again at risk of being delayed by baseless procedural maneuvering. On May 2, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Board of Directors posted a decision on the .web matter from its April 30 meeting, which found "that NDC (Nu Dotco LLC) did not violate the Guidebook or the Auction Rules" and directed ICANN "to continue processing NDC's .web application," clearing the way for the delegation of .web. more

ITU Secretary-General Elect Doreen Bogdan-Martin

This morning in Bucharest, Doreen Bogdan-Martin was elected by the member nations of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as its 12th Secretary-General. Of the 164 votes cast, she received 139 -- an overwhelming majority of 85 percent. Only 15 countries voted for her opponent, Rashid Ismailov of Russia, who sought to implement a divisive techno-political agenda. more

Will Electronically Steered Antennas Replace Parabolic Antennas in Satellite Ground Stations? (ChatGPT-Assisted Version)

In a previous post, I asked whether electronically steered antennas (ESAs) would replace parabolic antennas in satellite ground stations. I read a few articles suggested by others and by Google search, used some common sense, produced a list of advantages of ESAs, and concluded that it was likely they would eventually replace parabolic antennas for many applications. more