Verisign has withdrawn its plan to terminate existing third-level .name domain registrations and email-forwarding services following objections from affected registrants. ICANN confirmed the withdrawal on November 9, reversing approvals issued in July that would have allowed the company to discontinue both services for existing and new users.

In a November 5 letter to ICANN, Verisign Senior Vice President Patrick Kane said the registry would continue supporting existing registrations, including names such as john.smith.name and email-forwarding addresses such as [email protected], provided at least one ICANN-accredited registrar continues offering the services.

Existing registrations will remain supported, but with a condition. Verisign said it believes several registrars intend to continue offering the services and will work to ensure at least one remains available. It did not identify any registrar or provide an unconditional commitment to maintain the services.

New registrations could still be discontinued. Verisign plans to submit revised requests under ICANN’s Registry Services Evaluation Policy (RSEP) seeking authorization to stop new third-level .name registrations and new email-forwarding address registrations while preserving existing ones. The replacement requests had not appeared on ICANN’s RSEP listing as of November 11.

The reversal follows months of opposition to Verisign’s original April 15 proposals, which cited declining usage and limited registrar support. ICANN approved the requests on July 28, and Verisign notified registrars on August 15 that both services would be discontinued after 180 days.

Approximately 22,000 third-level domains faced termination under the original plan. Registrants raised concerns about losing longstanding Internet identities, disrupting email communications, and having to update accounts associated with their addresses.

Nine reconsideration requests challenged ICANN’s approvals. ICANN consolidated the requests on October 28 for joint consideration. Its Board Accountability Mechanisms Committee had previously recommended rejecting the first challenge, finding that ICANN had followed the applicable review process.

That recommendation also highlighted the process’s limits. ICANN’s registry-service review focuses on security, stability, and competition, rather than broader consequences for registrants. The committee acknowledged that ICANN knew approximately 22,000 registrations would be terminated but concluded that the potential customer impacts fell outside the review’s scope.

In its November 9 response, ICANN formally marked both requests as withdrawn and voided its earlier authorization letters. The decision comes during ongoing negotiations to renew the .name registry agreement under ICANN’s 2024 standard contract.

A separate Verisign request to retire .name’s legacy tiered WHOIS services remains approved.