Commerce expected to renew contract with Internet oversight company

Officials at the Internet's monitoring body are praising news of an expected renewal of its agreement with the Commerce Department to continue management of the Internet's domain-name system, but Congress may weigh in on the matter.

Nancy Victory, the head of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), said in a teleconference Friday that she anticipates that the NTIA will renew its agreement with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number (ICANN), but with added conditions.

ICANN spokeswoman Mary Hewitt praised Commerce's decision to renew its "memorandum of understanding" (MOU) with ICANN. "However," she said, "we are still in discussion as to the details in how the agreement will look."

Renewal of the deal-which expires Sept. 30-would mark the third time that NTIA has extended the agreement. Although Victory declined to disclose the time period for the proposed extension and the additional requirements ICANN may face, she indicated that any new conditions would be aimed at ensuring ICANN remains accountable and encouraging the organization's reform efforts.

Dozens of Internet domain firms have rallied to retain ICANN as the Internet's domain authority. Nearly 50 Web-address retailers have written to NTIA, supporting ICANN's reform process and urging the agency to extend its agreements.

Despite the likely extension, Congress may weigh in on ICANN.

"We would really like to do a hearing, but unfortunately, we are really running out of time," said one congressional source. Consequently, some lawmakers may meet with Victory prior to the contract's expiration.

The issue is not whether the agreement will be extended, said the source, but for how long and "how to do it in a way to maintain some oversight by the Commerce Department in the ICANN restructuring process"-an effort the organization embarked upon last February to become more transparent and accountable. Several members of Congress have concerns over that initiative.

"I think the issue ... is not whether the MOU is going to be extended but under what conditions," said Roger Cochetti, senior vice president for global policy at VeriSign, the company that currently manages registries for Web addresses ending in .com, .net and .org. "The announcement of Friday really doesn't tell us very much."

VeriSign at times has loudly criticized ICANN, arguing that the body oversteps its role as a "technical coordinating body," but Cochetti said Monday that "VeriSign and a pretty broad range of participants in the industry have indicated that the MOU should be extended."