[AFRINIC-Announce] NTIA Announces Intention to Allow the IANA Functions Contract to Expire

[AFRINIC Communication]

Dear Colleagues, 

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has announced its intention to allow the IANA Functions Contract to expire, representing the final step in an 18 year process to transition the Internet’s domain name system (DNS) to the private sector. The NTIA currently contracts ICANN to perform the IANA functions. 

On Friday, ICANN informed NTIA (https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-3-2016-08-12-en) that it has completed or will complete all the necessary tasks called for in the transition proposal by the end of the contract term. Based on its review of this report and barring any significant impediment, NTIA intends to allow the IANA functions contract to expire as of 1 October 2016. 

Over the last two years Internet stakeholder groups from around the world came together to formulate a comprehensive plan to transition the US Government out of its historical oversight role. AFRINIC community representatives and staff, together with the other four RIRs, worked tirelessly as part of the Numbers community to contribute to the plan to ensure that the Internet remains open, stable, resilient and secure. You can read about the work of the Consolidated RIR IANA Stewardship Proposal Team's (CRISP) work at https://www.nro.net/nro-and-internet-governance/iana-oversight/consolidated-rir-iana-stewardship-proposal-team-crisp-team

AFRINIC fully supports the IANA Stewardship Transition and would like to thank all of those who have contributed their time over the last two years.

Read the NTIA's full announcement at https://www.ntia.doc.gov/blog/2016/update-iana-transition.

Find out more about the IANA Stewardship Transition at https://www.icann.org/stewardship-accountability

AFRINIC Communication