The US government's attempt to end Network Solutions's monopoly in Internet domain names has run into technical and political glitches.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, known as ICANN, set up by the government to inject competition into the sale of Internet names ending in ".com," ".net" and ".org," was forced to extend a two-month test of a competitive system. Only one of the five companies chosen to test the system -- Register.com -- had actually begun selling domain names.

In April, Icann's interim chairman, Esther Dyson, trumpeted five new competitors, tapped to test a US$25 million shared-registry system developed by Network Solutions. The five were to begin using the system within a matter of days, and after two months, it was to be opened up to some 30 other approved firms, including AT&T Corp.

In addition to Register.com, a New York-based division of Forman Interactive Group, the others are: America Online; CORE, a U.S.-based consortium of small international registry firms; a France Telecom subsidiary, Oleane; and Melbourne IT.

Four of five aren't ready
The four companies said that two months was too little time to fix the inevitable technical glitches. The process has crept along, said Ken Stubbs, director of CORE, "because four out of the five registrars don't have an adequate comfort level" with the shared registry.

A nondisclosure agreement between the competing companies and Network Solutions prevents the companies from discussing specific technical problems.

Network Solutions won an exclusive government contract to register dot-com, dot-net, and dot-org domain names in 1992, and since then has logged more than five million registrations -- nearly 80% of the Internet's addresses -- charging US$35 a year for each name.

Icann, the outgrowth of a Clinton administration plan outlined last year to let competitors into the Internet-name business, has been targeted from all sides, from Network Solutions to Ralph Nader's Consumer Project on Technology. Some detractors believe the government isn't active enough in the process, while others say it is too involved. Still others say Icann is excluding interested parties from some decisions regarding the future of the Internet.

A recent Icann proposal to add a US$1 fee to all domain registrations and renewals to help fund its US$5.9 million annual budget drew swift criticism from US politicians.

$1 fee complaint
Last week, House Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas Bliley, a Virginia Republican, fired off letters to Ms. Dyson and Commerce Secretary William Daley questioning Icann's authority to levy the US$1 fee, which he called a new tax that could threaten the Internet's growth. The letters could be a prelude to congressional oversight hearings.

In recent months, Network Solutions has begun an aggressive lobbying campaign critical of Icann. "There is some concern among executives at Network Solutions and with Ralph Nader that this is not what the [administration] intended," said Network Solutions spokesman, Brian O'Shaughnessy. "Members [of Congress] and their staffers are sinking their teeth into that."

Icann has countered that Network Solutions simply wants to stall the competitive process, and that replacing a monopoly isn't an easy task. "The notion of privatizing a system into a global private-sector organization is new and there are no models," said Icann general counsel Joe Sims.

"I really don't think [the process] is in any particular state of chaos. It just turns out that creating a global, consensus-driven nonprofit organization is not so easy," Mr. Sims said.

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