The parent to the InterNIC company is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). It is a non-profit, private sector corporation dedicated to preserving the operational stability of the Internet and promoting competition. It used to be only one company that sold and managed top level domain names called Network Solutions. Today, there are over two hundred different companies that are accredited by ICANN to sell domains.

In October of 1998, the United States Department of Commerce and Network Solutions, Inc. modified their agreement, under which Network Solutions had been the only registrar and registry administrator for the .com, .net, and .org top-level domains. This modification to their agreement required the establishment of a Shared Registration System. This system would allow an unlimited number of registrars to compete for domain name registration business. They would all still utilize one

TLD Sponsored/ Unsponsored Purpose Applicant

In November of 1998, the Department of Commerce identified ICANN as the body that would oversee the transition to competition under the Shared Registration System. Part of ICANN's responsibilities included establishing and implementing a policy and procedure for registrar accreditation that would ensure a shift to a competitive domain name registration system providing continued Internet stability and domain-name durability.

.coop Sponsored Cooperatives National Cooperative Business Association, (NCBA)

.aero Sponsored Air-transport industry Societe Internationale de Telecommunications Aeronautiques SC, (SITA)

On March 4, 1999, the ICANN Board of Directors adopted a Statement of Registrar Accreditation Policy, which was developed from the publicly posted Draft Guidelines for Registrar Accreditation and the comments received on the message board. The ICANN Board directed ICANN's acting President and CEO to put into operation a program for registrar accreditation for the .com, .net, and .org top-level domains following the policies in the Statement of Registrar Accreditation Policy.

.name Unsponsored For registration by individuals Global Name Registry, LTD

.museum Sponsored Museums Museum Domain Management Association, (MuseDoma)

Some common words found in the essay are:
Service Providers, TLD TLD, Network Solutions, Accreditation Agreement, Name Services, System ICANN's, Names ICANN, ICANN Thanksgiving, ICANN Sponsored, Registration System, registrar accreditation, ip address, com registry, top level, address yahoocom, domain name, network solutions, root servers, top level domain, domain names, level domain, ip address yahoocom, 4 1999 icann, org top-level domains, top level domains,
Approximate Word count = 979
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)