On Thu, 29 Jul 1999, A.M. Rutkowski wrote:
> Have any potential registrars filed complaints with DG IV
> to open up competitive registrar opportunities for the various
> monopoly European country member domains?
Not to the best of my knowledge.
There is good understanding of these issues at DG IV (the competition
directorate). I have heard them argue that .COM is sold across Europe
and sales volumes are large enough to justify DG IV's interest,
whereas national TLDs, ccTLDs, are sold in their respective
national markets with little leakage, and therefore the national TLDs
are better handled by the national authorities.
In the UK what was then the Monopolies and Mergers Commission looked
carefully at .UK and decided that (a) the .UK registry is a natural
monopoly, (b) the market wasn't large enough to justify setting up
a regulator, (c) Nominet, the .UK registrar, is well-managed, (d)
the market is open and competitive, in that anyone can become a
registrar upon payment of a nominal fee, and (e) Nominet's being
operated as a shared registry managed by the .UK registrars in common
removed any remaining doubts. Nominet passed the thousand-registrar
mark some time ago. They have been dropping prices regularly since the
beginning. From September a registration in .UK will cost registrars
about $7.50 for two (2) years.
If (b) isn't clear: it costs money to set up a regulator staffed by
career civil servants on high salaries with generous retirement
benefits and union dues to pay. It is very likely that if .UK were
to fall under the authority of a regulator prices would have be to
increased to pay the costs of regulation. Given Nominet's sensible
management, low overheads, and falling prices, it would take a
brave and foolish government to act against it.
Please do not read this as an argument in support of DG IV's movement
against Network Solutions. I think that DG IV's position in this
matter is reasonable. DG IV has a well-deserved good reputation,
unlike some of the other directorates. (*) They do a good job, and
much of the success of what used to be called the Common Market is
due to DG IV's good work.
However, it looks to me like DG IV been misinformed and badly
advised in this matter by other elements of the European Commission
who have a strong interest in the success of ICANN's plan for
consolidating power over the Internet.
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(*) I know of nothing in American history to parallel the recent sacking
-- OK, OK, mass resignation under pressure -- of the European
Commissioners. And few were surprised or shocked, though many were
angry, when the head of DG XIII, the telecommunications directorate,
then accepted a position paying about $1 million a year with Telefonica,
the Spanish telco, while he was still responsible for regulating it.
--
Jim Dixon Managing Director
VBCnet GB Ltd http://www.vbc.net tel +44 117 929 1316
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Member of Council Telecommunications Director
Internet Services Providers Association EuroISPA EEIG
http://www.ispa.org.uk http://www.euroispa.org
tel +44 171 976 0679 tel +32 2 503 22 65
