The Great Domain Correction of 2017?

There were only 1.8 million registered .com names when I joined the NSI (Network Solutions) Marketing Team in the summer of 1998. ICANN was formed just a few months later. By the time we were acquired by Verisign in June of 2000 there were roughly 14 million names in the .com database. I recall predictions that one day there would be 100 million registered .com names. Some thought that was a craaaazy number and wanted to know what we were smoking. more

Really? A Hearing on New gTLDs at this Late Stage?

To the dismay of many (and the chagrin of some), it appears as though the US House Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet will be conducting a hearing on New generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs). Meanwhile, ICANN is careening towards the finish line of the new gTLD Program with a vote by the ICANN Board scheduled for June 20th. Just what this all means remains to be seen. more

“Is DSL Finally Dying?” No!

Jeff Heynan at Infonetics reported a double-digit drop in DSL equipment sales, inspiring Dan O'Shea at Telephony to headline "Is DSL Finally Dying?" Both note that DSL sales in Q1 were actually ahead of the same quarter last year. Yet Dan writes "Fiber is the future." more

Four Critical IT Elements for a More Productive Business

IT is now a boardroom discussion. Beyond troubleshooting server issues and maintaining network security, IT initiatives must provide company-wide ROI and work in unison with other department objectives. But the link between corporate efficiency and technology spending isn't always obvious -- here are four critical IT elements your business needs to improve productivity. more

ICANN Asked to Remake the Internet in Joseph Smith’s Image?

If there's one thing that scares the bejabbers out of me, it's when organized religion -- either directly or via proxies -- attempts to nose its way into technology policy issues. It appears that such a scenario is unfolding currently, with a concerted new effort to fundamentally remake the Internet in a manner befitting the sensibilities of top-down religious hierarchies. An Internet Pope? The Spanish Inquisition? Not exactly -- that's the incorrect religion for this particular case. more

Huawei Files Motion in US Federal Court Calling Ban Unconstitutional, an Assault on Human Rights

Huawei has filed a legal motion in the United States federal court calling for the ban to be declared unconstitutional and deemed an assault on global human rights. more

Statutory Remedies for UDRP Grievants

The U.S. is unusual in that grievants of a UDRP award have a statutory remedy from an adverse UDRP award, namely an action for declaratory judgement under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA). The action is not an appeal, but a de novo assessment of the parties' rights, either that the domain name holder is cybersquatting or its registration was lawful. Under U.S. law UDRP awards are not treated as arbitration awards subject to the Federal Arbitration Act but as new disputes. more

Berkman Broadband Study: Mixing Passion and Scholarship

Last week, comments were filed with the FCC in response to the Berkman study of international broadband comparisons... Many of the comments were not supportive of the Harvard Berkman study. In an earlier blog posting, we had observed that there appeared to be statistical problems in the Berkman study that would not hold up to peer review. Our comments may have understated the extent of the problems. more

Beyond Net Neutrality: A Manifesto for Internet Freedom

The Internet's existence within the regulatory system has been a disastrous failure. Network Neutrality is fine as far as it goes. The problem is that it leaves the current abysmal system in place. On my Economics and Architecture of IP Networks Mail list, Erik Cecil has been deconstructing the regulatory system. Bottom line -- the most significant thing that can be done for the citizens of the internet in the US would be for the FCC to declare the internet protocol to be telecommunications and no longer exempt from regulation. more

Internet Population Passes 1 Billion, and We’re Still Afraid

We're learning this week that we have officially passed the one billion number in terms of people using the Internet. Eric Schonfeld writes in his article on TechCrunch that the number is probably higher than that. One billion is a staggering number, even though it makes up only 15 to 22 percent of the world's population. Nevertheless, those one billion Internet users give us a lot to deal with on their own in terms of social and security issues on the web. more

Are You Prepared for a New Turkish Delight? .TR Domain Name to Be Released

In the last year, the company that runs the Turkish Domain Registry has made many changes to how the extension is run. First, it has a brand new portal for registrars to interact with, liberalizing the extension .COM.TR, so registrants are no longer required to meet local presence rules, and it has launched a new dispute process to help brand holders recover domain names.  more

Google Launches .dev Top-Level Domain

Google today launched another new top-level domain, .dev, to the public aimed as a secure domain for developers and tech community. more

The Christmas Goat and IPv6 (Year 6)

When I last year failed to take a picture of the Christmas goat before it was taken down, I decided this year to take a pic every minute, just to be on the safe side. A shortened movie based on these pics of the 2015 Christmas Goat can be find on YouTube. The clip on YouTube also shows that in the early morning of December the 27th the goat was set on fire and burned down in minutes. more

Keep Politics Out of 5G International Standardization

For the past hundred years or so, the world's vendors of communication networks and services have collaborated -- largely among themselves -- with great success. That paradigm continues today for 5G with the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and an ecosystem cluster of related organizations where industry and affected government agencies worldwide successfully work on a massive scale. more

Kenya’s .KE Domain Registrations Nearing 100,000 Mark, but It Can Do Better – Here’s Why

Over the years, the Kenyan Network Information Center (KeNIC) has struggled to reach the 100,000 mark in .ke Kenya country code domain registrations. Many reasons have been given for this shortfall, among them pricing, competition from generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) like .com and .org, and also competition from Geographic domains like the new .africa. Also, not opening up the second level for registration has been cited as one of the reasons for the low number. more