IANA Transition: Expect our response in 90 days - NTIA

ITRealms:

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the United States Department of Commerce has said the global internet stakeholders should expect their response no sooner than in 90 days on the proposed transition plan for the Stewardship of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), reports ITRealms.

At the just concluded 55^th public meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in Marrakech, Morocco at the weekend, ITRealms recalls that its chairman, Dr. Steve Crocker on behalf of stakeholders, submitted a proposal to transition the stewardship of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions from the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to the global multistakeholder community IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG).

This was in response to earlier call on March 14, 2014 by NTIA on its intent to transition the stewardship of key Internet functions to the global multistakeholder community, hence, NTIA asked ICANN to convene global stakeholders to develop a proposal.

In acknowledging the receipt of the proposal, the Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator, Mr. Lawrence E. Strickling, revealed that it could take up to three months, an estimated 90 days for a formal response to come, all things being equal.

This, he said, is because in considering the proposal, NTIA will be joined by the other agencies of the US government including the Congress and in line with the U.S. Government Accountability Office recommendations.

“NTIA will now begin the process of reviewing the proposal, hopefully within 90 days, to determine whether it meets the criteria we outlined when we announced the transition,” Strickling said.

He insisted that the proposal must support and enhance the multistakeholder model of Internet governance, in that it should be developed by the multistakeholder community and have broad community support.  

“More specifically, we will not accept a transition proposal that replaces the NTIA role with a government-led or intergovernmental organization solution,” Strickling asserted.

Secondly, he maintained that the proposal must ensure the security, stability, and resiliency of the domain name system (DNS).

His third outline, Strickling said, it must meet the needs and expectations of the global customers and partners of the IANA services, just as, it must maintain the openness of the Internet.

The NTIA administrator also disclosed that the U.S. Congress has a strong interest in this proposal, and they expect Congress to closely monitor and review the proposal as well as evaluate the plan.

While commending ICANN stakeholders for their contributions in making the transition easy, he expressed hope that eventually, with this transition plan, ICANN will be stronger as a result of this effort.

“… But a successful outcome here would serve as a powerful example to the world that the multistakeholder model can be used to address challenging Internet governance issues,” Strickling assured.

+ITRealms DSA +Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) 

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Pix:  NTIA Administrator, Mr. Lawrence E. Strickling