Stepping up convergence with BroadAccess

The recent launch of Glo’s BroadAccess is a step in the right direction for the much touted convergence to take root in the country, reports REMMY NWEKE.


Imagine a situation when you now have telephony access with voice and data, all simply in one cable with a modern technology that converts existing twisted-pair telephone lines into access paths for multi media and high speed data communications.

Within the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and technically, this technology is known as a Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), which brings to the table a world of digital convergence; where all digital communication is made possible with a variety. One of the pair of the telephone lines tends to offer any subscriber the traditional land line telephony, fastest broadband internet, video and television.

And unveiling this elegance of services a fortnight ago, the Second National Operator (SNO), Globacom, unwrapped its fixed line service codenamed ‘Glo broad access’ with potentials to change the face of telecommunications in the country. Leading the Glo family at the presentation penultimate Tuesday in Lagos, the Group Chief Operating Officer (GCOO), Globacom, Mr. Mohammed Jameel, said that Glo’s SNO license affords the operator to provide a fixed line network for Nigeria.

Operating under the name, Glo Broadaccess, Jameel said Globacom strategy is to transform the country’s underdeveloped fixed telephony by way of offering the benefits of convergence of advanced voice, advanced data and advanced video on one single wired line.

According to him, from integrated telephone services for corporate organisations and small business enterprises to user friendly plans for homes, Broadaccess tends to bring innovative, cost-effective solutions to accommodate customers’ needs. Pointing out that with this unveiling, Glo has scored another first in the telecom revolution of this country, especially for its over 22 million subscribers.

“It has been a dream comes through for Glo,” he asserted, noting that Glo Broadaccess is a technology that provides voice, image, data for customers, which does not in any form replace its GSM, just as the fixed line has features more than the GSM platform including call forwarding, alert aside from providing rich internet access.

At the initial stage, Jameel said, the fixed line services would be available in 13 major cities in Nigeria with a capacity of 300,000 lines, and in order to achieve this, the larger project of networking Nigeria, state of the art equipment and a 10,000 kilo meters (km) long distance optical fibre backbone and city network are being deployed.

Additionally, he said, some of the services that would be launched on Glo Fixed network to include telephone, the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) lines, which has been subdivided into the Basic Rate Interface (BRI) and Primary Rate Interface (PRI), Centrex, Internet Protocol (IP) cum Virtual Private Network (VPN), leased line, video conferencing, high speed internet – ADSL, call centre service, nationwide single number, video on demand (VOD), triple play, broadcast TV, gaming, video mailbox to name a few.

The core service packages of broad access, he said, is beyond basic telephony, as users are offered a host of Value Added Services (VAS), just as each telephone connection from Globacom’s BroadAccess is backed with the superior fiber-optic backbone for enhanced reliability and quality.

The special guest of honour at the occasion and honourable Minister of State for Information and Communications, Alhaji Aliyu Bilbis commended Globacom for the launch and said that it has been a change agent in the nation’s telecommunications sector, moreso with its fixed line telephony.

Bilbis said, Broadaccess from Glo would accelerate economic growth in the country, even as he made the first official call on the network during the high profile launch in Lagos. He stressed that Glo has with Broadaccess, once again challenged other networks with the introduction of its latest service.

“Glo is known for its commitment to innovation. The benefit of a fast internet platform and fixed line which Glo has now brought to Nigeria cannot be overemphasized because it will make enormous contributions to the rapid growth of the nation’s economy.

“While the GSM sub-sector has grown rapidly over the last eight years, fixed line telephony has remained largely undeveloped. We have no doubt that Glo is now positioned to lift the fixed line sub-sector,” he asserted.

Equally speaking, he said that the launch of Glo Broad Access has proved that Globacom is a reliable partner in the achievement of the cardinal objective of President Umar Musa Yar’Adua administration’s 7-point agenda to comprehensively establish and revitalize infrastructure in prime sectors of the economy.

In his remarks, the Chairman, House Committee on Communications, Hon. Dave Salako, said the launch of Glo Broad Access is another giant stride and a milestone in the history of telecommunications in Nigeria, expressing the hope that Glo BroadAccess would fill the gap created by the absence of the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL).

The chairman, Senate Committee on Communications, Senator Sylvester Anyanwu, told the audience at the launch that it’s a celebration of excellence, focus and perseverance.

Emphasizing that Glo has continued to provide reliable telecom services to urban and rural populations, thus members of the Senate are proud of the operator for extending its services to several West African countries.

“This launch is even more significant because the rate of fixed to mobile penetration in Nigeria has been very low. I cannot imagine how we survived with mobile phones in offices. With the introduction of Broad Access, Glo has brought fixed line telephony back to glory,” he said.

Invariably, most Nigerians who commented on the coming of BroadAccess, were excited over the announcement, but said that they are interested in acquiring such service as long as it is affordable.

The launch of Glo BroadAccess, is generally seen as filling the void created by the inability of the first national operator, NITEL, to live up to expectations, even after achieving about 500,000 lines nationwide.

This brings to mind the statement accredited to the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, recently in Lagos, where he was quoted as attributing lack of fixed lines to the surge witnessed with the GSM.

The ball is now in the court of Globacom to roll-out its BroadAccess to as many as possible, because there is an existing market with open arms waiting for an embrace.


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Internet Governance Forum: Stakeholders seek more 5 years

Most participants at the recently concluded Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt were in agreement that the process should continue beyond 2010, even as some key stakeholders were vehement about its extension to another five years.

ITRealms Online recalls that IGF was instituted at the end of the two-phased World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) which held in Geneva in 2003 and Tunisia in 2005. The initial concept of IGF was to be a multi-stakeholders approach to continue discussions on outcome of WSIS, most of which centred on the need to have a governing pattern that could be acceptable to the greater number of the global internet community.

The five-year mandate to IGF initially is expected to expire next year, but with this development, may be extended till 2015.

At the global 2009 Internet Governance Forum (IGF) which held between November 15 and 18 with calls from participants to extend the Internet Governance Forum beyond its current mandate.

The United Nations (UN) Department of Public Information in a press statement made available to ITRealms Online, affirmed that with more than 1800 participants from 112 countries, the 2009 Forum saw the largest attendance record since its inception in 2006.

The participants reflected the diversity of internet users and came from governments, international organizations, the Internet community, the private sector, civil society and the media. The deliberations presided over the Egyptian Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Mr. Tarek Kamel, examined ways to improve Internet access by all and promote local content and cultural diversity by making certain that the safety of the Internet and fight cybercrime; manage key Internet resources such as the root server system, technical standards, interconnection and telecommunications, the domain name system and Internet protocol addresses.

Participants also discussed new issues related to the continued growth of social networks, and the ensuing governance issues that are emerging, in particular, the need for new approaches regarding privacy and data protection, rules applicable to user-generated content and copyrighted material, and issues of freedom of expression and illegal content.

Parallel to the main sessions on these issues, more than 100 workshops, best practice forums, dynamic coalition meetings and open forums were held around the broad themes of the main sessions and the overall mandate of the IGF. The UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Mr. Sha Zukang, who led formal consultations with Forum participants on the “desirability of the continuation of the Forum”, argued the centrality of the principle of inclusiveness and the need for continued discussions on public policy issues related to the Internet in some form.
According to him, a report on these consultations would be presented to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, who will then communicate his recommendations to the General-Assembly. High ranking government officials who took the floor at the opening of the meeting agreed that the IGF should continue to meet beyond 2010, underlining the fact that IGF had proven its usefulness.

They equally supported the continuation of the Forum by reiterating in closing statements by representatives from all stakeholder groups, including state officials, many of whom said they were already looking forward to the meeting which Kenya hoped to organize in 2011.

However, in his closing remarks, the chairman of the 2009 IGF meeting, Mr. Kamel, said he witnessed wide consensus on “the need for the continuation of the IGF process with the legitimacy provided by the U.N. umbrella as well as the dynamic nature of the event,” which was very clear in Sharm el-Sheikh, thus the exercise needed to continue.

A summary statement distributed at the end of the meeting, it was noted that many speakers emphasized the usefulness of the IGF as a platform for dialogue, free from the pressures of negotiations. Most of the speakers who supported improvements would like the IGF to refocus its attention on certain points such as international public policy issues; capacity-building; participation by developing countries; improved transparency; improved communications; improved remote participation; creating a data base for best practices; more visibility for outcomes, and possibly the ability to make recommendations.

While many other speakers supported a continuation of the Forum as it is, that is, to continue the IGF as a multi-stakeholder platform that brings people together to deliberate on issues, exchange information and share best practices, but not to make decisions, nor to have highly visible outputs.

Yet, others who supported the continuation of IGF along similar lines to its current form, called for some changes, ranging from small improvements to major changes in its functioning, such as adding provisions that would allow it to produce outputs and decisions on a multi-stakeholder consensus basis.

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Akinola tasks Love FM

Primate, Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion, Most Rev. Peter Jasper Akinola has tasked the new Frequency Modulated (FM) radio station at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, Love FM, to always broadcast the truth at all times without fear or favour in order to help create a better Nigerian society.

Akinola, who was represented by Rt. Rev. Duke T. Akamisoko, in a sermon during the dedication of the ultra modern office complex by Multimesh Broadcasting Ltd, as part of the prelude for commencement of services by Love FM 104. 5 in Abuja, decried the dearth of truth in the public service sector and the decay in the nation’s polity.

He also urged the station to strive to always report the truth in order to help liberate and reposition the country for growth.

Equally, Akinola applauded the management of Multimesh for their visionary steps, especially in the establishment of Love FM, for achieving so much within a short space of time in the industry.

Additionally he challenged the station to promote and commend the industrious while removing the cover from the evil and corrupt ones who do not want to see the growth of the nation.

“Look at this building. Only a great man can do this work in less than a year,” he declared, charging employees of the company to put in their best, explaining that although there is declining commitment and trust among Nigerian workers, stressing that Multimesh workers could make a difference for their station to become a paradigm of success.

The Director General, National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Mr. Yomi Bolarinwa represented by the Director, Finance, Mr. Patrick Areh, said that for those who don’t know the company, Multimesh started small from Cable and now there is Radio and this will be followed by TV and Direct-To-Home (DTH).

“The company plans for a long sustained growth and hopefully in less than five years, it will be there,” Bolarinwa said.

Chairman of Multimesh, Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, said they believe that without God nothing is possible.

“We’re asking God to lead us as the dream of the company is bigger than this,” Ohuabunwa declared and appealed to the workers to take advantage of the great facilities put at their disposal and work to make the company a success, even as he commended NBC for being a facilitator rather than impediment.

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ATDI lauds NCC on consumer protection

Pan-African non-governmental organisation committed to the development of telecom on the continent, Africa Telecom Development Initiative (ATDI), has lauded the leadership of Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for revolutionary regulation of the industry.

The Executive Secretary, ATDI, Mr. Ken Ugbechie, in a press statement made available to ITRealms Online, said “the telecom regulator’s revolutionary advocacy for the protection of telecom consumers in the country through the monthly telecom consumer parliament,” is unequal.

According to him, upon the licensing of the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) companies in 2001, NCC oriented itself to regulatory activism to protect the consumer, thereby raising the quality of service consciousness among operators and promotion of potentials in the nation’s ICT market.

This position, he said, was strengthened with the set up of the Consumer Affairs Bureau in September 2001, barely one month after the first two GSM companies rolled out services essentially to inform, educate and protect consumers.

The Bureau, he noted was charged to coordinate the telecom consumer parliament, therefore building bridges between consumers and operators.

Mr. Ugbechie also said such initiative speaks volume of a people-centric commission wholly committed to protecting the consumer in an increasingly capitalist investment environment.

“The Parliament is an expression in regulatory activism by the NCC to protect the consumer and help the operators improve their service offerings.  It currently holds once in a month in different parts of the country and it has been held in all the geo-political zones, thus bringing both the operators and the regulator closer to the consumers. We recommend this model for other agencies in other sectors,” he asserted.

Ugbechie pointed out that through the Parliament, consumers have a voice and equally been heard.

“More importantly, the consumer, the operator and the regulator now have a regular forum to rub minds for the overall development of the telecom sector,” he declared.

ATDI noted that by moving the event from one part of the country to another every month has assisted the operators to access and better appreciate their level of market penetration, quality of service delivery in addition to consumer behavior.

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CNP 750,000 promo enters phase 2

The phase 2 of the Computerize Nigeria Project (CNP) 750,000 computer ownership promo has commenced.

Head, Computerize Nigeria Project, Mrs Loretta Agbakoba, said the phase of the promo would now run till the end of March 31, 2010.

As said by her, the promo, which was supposed to end on December 31, 2009, has been extended primarily to heed the call from well meaning academics that the promo be extended to the first quarter of 2010 to make up for the duration of the ASUU strike.

She stressed that ASUU strike added a couple of months to the academic year and it would be beneficial to parents, students and academic institutions for the promo to power the beginning of a new semester while corresponding with the take off of a new Federal budget.

The extension, therefore, she said, would also serve the hunger of Nigerians who are desperate for knowledge tools.

She explained that the Phase 2 of the 750,000 Computer Ownership Promo is embedded with the incredible benefit of a Zinox e-learning suite worth N62,000 free for one year and a free Zinox digi lamp to enhance reading in a country where blackouts have become a norm.

Recalling that the e-learning suite was developed in partnership between Zinox and World elibrary and is currently number 1 in Africa and contains 750,000 e-books downloadable in any PC; that is 59,000 medical e-documents and e-books; 11,000 classic literature e-books; 1,000 Chemistry e-books, 500 Mathematics e-books; 250 Physics e-books; and 680,000 e-books more. The suite also contains Physics simulation tools, Creative, Observation, and Skills Development Tools, Teacher Lessons Plans, Worksheets, and Classroom Articles.

The e-learning suite, she further said, holds a lot of promise for educational institutions who want to be rated among the world’s best and Governments who wish to accelerate the pace towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and the vision 202020.

Equally she explained that participation is open to all Nigerians and employers may take advantage of the promo to computerize their staff simply by issuing an employer’s guaranty.

“No bank guarantees are required. All the frustrating documentation that have hitherto made Computer Ownership schemes tedious and unpleasant have been clipped off,” she said, pointing out that all a prospect needs is to decide whether to pay the very low cash prices or subscribe to the 12 months installment option.

Mrs. Agbakoba elucidated that e-learning suites would be automatic to the 1st 100,000 laptops purchased, while all products would enjoy immediate delivery and the respective manufacturer warranty of the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEMs) such as Zinox, HP, Dell, Toshiba, and Acer.

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Computer Aid lifts KASU with 1,500 PCs

The United Kingdom (UK)-based non-profit organization, Computer Aid International (CAI), has lifted the Kaduna State University (KASU) in the northern part of the country, by providing over 1,500 personal computers (PCs) to the institution.

Chief Executive Officer, Computer Aid International, Mr. Tony Robert, made this disclosure recently while on official visit to Nigeria.

Mr. Robert, accompanied by the Programme Officer for West Africa at CAI, Ms. Anne Musyoki, said that his organization has provided over 1,500 Personal Computers (PCs), some which, have been distributed by KASU to neighboring institutions of higher learning in the northern part of the country.

“Computer Aid has provided over 1,500 PCs some which have been distributed by KASU to neighboring institutions of higher learning,” he declared.

According to him, the Kaduna State University as one of the beneficiaries of Computer Aid International has benefited directly with over 100 of such computers in the past two years.

He maintained that the aim of the Computer Aid International is essentially to provide practical experience for people and ultimately build their capacity.

And in furtherance of this relationship, Mr. Robert noted that occasionally, CAI officials pay visit to some of the partnering organizations, especially the receipt institutions.

This, he said, is to ensure proper utilization of the computers received and that was why recently his team visited the country, which was also an interactive one with the partner’s principal officers and core end users.

Mr. Robert pointed out that Computer Air International is determined to reduce poverty through practical provision of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solutions.

At the Computer Aid’s London workshop, he said, they data-wipe, test and professionally refurbish donated computers and laptops from UK organisations and individuals.

Computer Aid, Robert further said, has provided over 150,000 PCs worldwide.
Meanwhile in its 2008 Annual Report, CAI said it has shipped over 100,000th PCs as at February 2008.

As said by its immediate past chief executive, Ms Louise Richards, the year 2008 saw some landmarks in the organization, including the sending of its 225 container to the Ethiopian partners, the Information Technology Development Agency (ITDA), who provided it to a young disabled man who is using it in his road-side business, as part of his not-for-profit activities to assist other disabled people.

In September 2008, Richards recalled that CAI launched a campaign against the dumping of electronic waste (e-waste) in the developing countries of the world.
Stressing that CAI called on UK government to tighten up legislation by ensuring that UK’s e-waste are not export to developing countries like Nigeria, Ghana and China.

“A petition was set up on the Downing Street website and received over 200 signatures,” Richard pointed out.

While reiterating the Computer Air International commitment, Richards said it’s determined to providing a high quality and professionally decommissioning service to its UK computer donors and to delivering the highest quality refurbished computers to its recipients overseas.

Founded in 1998, Computer Aid is a UK registered charity organization that has shipped over 150,000 PCs to where were they are mostly needed in over 100 countries.


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Glo enhances call centre operators with Glo Profit

Glo Mobile has given enhance the revenue base of Commercial Telephone Operators (CTOs) nationwide with the introduction of its Glo Profit, which replaces Profitmax Extra and Profitmax Special.

Acting Head, Marketing, Glo Mobile, Mr. Navdeep Kapur, said Glo Profit offers a prepaid tariff package which charges a flat rate of 25 kobo per second for calls to all GSM networks once the call operator reaches a daily usage of N150 worth of calls.

In addition, he said the package reduces call tariff to the lowest in the market, whilst it does not attract any daily rental fees.

Kapur also said the removal of daily rental and a reduction of call tariff to 25 kobo per second for calls made within the Glo network and to other networks make Glo Profit the most attractive call centre package in the industry.

“It is the most profitable package for call centre operators” Kapur declared.
Further, he said, the package was designed to enhance the revenue base of call centre operators, thereby encouraging Nigerian youths to set up their own commercial telephone operations with very little resources.

“Glo Profit offers additional incentives for unemployed youths, housewives and other people desiring additional sources of income to become self sufficient by setting up their own commercial telephone operations,” he said.

According to him, Glo Profit was designed to replace the erstwhile call centre packages, Profitmax Extra and Profitmax Special. Existing subscribers on these platforms would be migrated to the new Glo Profit tariff plan. Kapur equally said that new subscribers could also enjoy the offer by buying the new Glo Profit SIM card from any Gloworld outlet.

“With the Glo Profit offer, the commercial telephone operator is assured of crystal clear reception, superior service delivery and higher profits. They are also able to use Glo Easy Share to transfer credit to one another. This is particularly useful when recharge vouchers are not immediately available,” Kapur submitted.

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Starcomms takes home 3 prizes @ NITTA-09

... Unveils 100% reward promo

Leading Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operator, Starcomms Plc, has won three awards at the recently concluded Nigeria Information Technology and Telecom Awards 2009, which is the 8th edition.

These include the Best CDMA Company of the Year, Best Internet Product of the Year – IZAP by Starcomms, and Nigerian Telecom CEO of the Year, which went to the chief executive officer of Starcomms, Mr. Maher Qubain.

This is coming as the CDMA operator has commenced a new promo to reward subscribers with 100 per cent bonus airtime for recharging.

Announcing the promo, the chief executive, Mr. Qubain noted that any Starcomms’ customer who recharges his or her phone with at least N2,500 at once, would get the same value of free on-net airtime and it is valid for a whole month.

He also said that Starcomms is offering various degrees of bonuses to every category of recharge from N100 onwards.

“All customers using mobile and fixed lines can enjoy this offer, except those on telemax and Virtual Private Network (VPN),” he said, stressing that customers of Starcomms can only use the bonus airtime for voice calls and not for data services.

Additionally, he said, the 100 per cent recharge promotion, Starcomms customers are in for a good time with a lavish offer that the network is making on the all-trendy colour FM phone.

As said by him, the company is giving the phone virtually free with a lot of extras, pointing out that the colour FM phone has been popular for its usefulness for work and for fun which price is at N5,000 and comes with N1,000 recharge card, and free earpiece and a free SIM card.

“At the first recharge, the owner of the FM phone automatically gets N4,000 free on-net airtime,” he declared.

Qubain emphasised that his company has put the customers above all other considerations in Starcomms.

“That is why we come up with what is best for them at all times. Our commitment to providing quality and afford able telecommunication services is firm. Therefore we deliver world class services to our customers without stressing their wallets,” he asserted.

For the Chief Commercial Officer, Starcomms, Mr. Tushar Maheshwari “the need for people to talk more in a season like this inspired the recharge bonus and colour fm phone promotions. Starcomms helps our customers to enjoy more conversation than they bargain for in monetary terms. The Colour FM phone even allows them to do so in a trendy way”.

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350m users now on Facebook – Zuckerberg

Founder of the assuming most popular social networking site, the Facebook, Mr. Mark Zuckerberg has disclosed that over 350 million people globally now use the social networking tool, reports CHARLES OKOH.

Mr. Zuckerberg in an open letter on his Facebook’s wall, made available to Champion Infotel, said that it has been a great year for making the world more open and connected.

“Thanks to your help, more than 350 million people around the world are using Facebook to share their lives online,” he said. Zuckerberg noted that in order to make this possible, his team focused on giving subscribers to networking site the tools needed to share and control their information.

He traced the origin of Facebook to five year ago, when his team built tools that help people to control what they share with individuals and groups of people, just as the work to improve privacy has continued.

Facebook’s current privacy model, he said, revolves around ‘networks’ which entails communities for school, company or region, stressing that this worked well when Facebook was mostly used by students, since it made sense that a student might want to share content with their fellow students.

“Over time people also asked us to add networks for companies and regions as well. Today, we even have networks for some entire countries, like India and China,” he asserted.

However, Zuckerberg pointed out that as Facebook has grown, some of these regional networks now have millions of members and concluded that this is no longer in the best interest of Facebook users.

According to him, almost 50 per cent of all Facebook users are members of regional networks, so this is an important issue.

“If we can build a better system, then more than 100 million people will have even more control of their information,” he said. He emphasized that they have plan to come up with is to remove regional networks completely and create a simpler model for privacy control where Facebook user could set content to be available to only their friends, friends of their friends or even everyone.

“We’re adding something that many of you have asked for; the ability to control who sees each individual piece of content you create or upload,” he asserted.
Additionally, his team would be fulfilling a request made by many of the users to make the privacy settings page simpler by combining some settings.

Since this update will remove regional networks and create some new settings, in the next couple of weeks, he stated the need to review and update user’s privacy settings.

“You’ll see a message that will explain the changes and take you to a page where you can update your settings. When you’re finished, we’ll show you a confirmation page so you can make sure you chose the right settings for you. As always, once you’re done you’ll still be able to change your settings whenever you want,” he said.

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ICANN says new RAA deal covers 88% registrars

Global internet coordinator, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), has said that six months after new registrant protections were approved by its Board, over 88 per cent of all generic domain names are now covered.

A press statement from the global body said the protections include improved ways of storing data that require registration companies to submit to more stringent rules.

These are included in a revised contract between ICANN and registrars, under the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA).Since the revised RAA was approved on May 21, 2009, about 650 registrars have voluntarily agreed to be bound by the new agreement; collectively they represent 88 per cent of all generic top-level domains registered.

In return, those that have signed the new agreement are recognized by ICANN on its listing of accredited companies. Also, under their existing contract, registrars are not required to sign up to the new RAA until their existing agreement ends, but they can voluntarily sign up early.

“The high level of coverage achieved to date is due primarily to these voluntary early adopters,” ICANN said.

ICANN chief executive officer and President, Mr. Rod Beckstrom was quoted in the press statement as saying that the vast majority of generic domain names are now covered by these protections is a clear sign of the industry’s goodwill and its commitment to effective self-regulation - especially since some of these protections come at a cost to the companies themselves.

“It is an extraordinary achievement in a very short time,” he said. Some of the additional protections afforded registrants under the new contract include enhanced enforcement tools to assure registrar compliance with ICANN policies, enhanced data escrow requirements to protect registrants that use privacy or proxy services, a Registrant Rights & Responsibilities document, new requirements placed on resellers, improved contact information requirements and registrar required training programme.

The Vice President of Oversee.net and chair of the Registrar Stakeholders Group, Mason Cole, said registrars and the ICANN community successfully collaborated to make sure consumers are well protected.

“While respecting the competitive marketplace ICANN has made part of its mandate. It is encouraging to see how quickly and assertively registrars have adopted the terms of the new agreement,” Cole observed.

As an aid to potential registrants, ICANN has added an indicator on each of the public lists of registrars to show which registrars have adopted the 2009 RAA deal.

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